DUKE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015 https://archive.org/details/greatwestorgarde01dana THE GREAT WEST, OR THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD ITS HISTORY, ITS WEALTH, ITS NATURAL ADVANTAGES, AND ITS FUTURE. ALSO COMPRISING A COMPLETE GUIDE TO EMIGRANTS WITH A FULL DESCRIPTION OF THE DIFFERENT ROUTES WESTWARD. By C. W. DANA, AUTHOR OF “ WESTERN SCENES,” “ LIFE IN THE WEST,” ETC. WITH STATISTICS AND FACTS, FROM HON. THOMAS H. BENTON, GEN. SAM HOUSTON, AND COL. JOHN C. FREMONT. BOSTON: THAYER & E EDRIDGE, 114 & 116 Washington Street. 1861 . Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1866, by WENTWORTH AND COMPANY, In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts STEREOTYPED AT THE BOSTON STEREOTYPE FOUNDRY. PRINTED BY GEORGE C. RAND 8c AVERY. ‘m DltTG- I beheld the westward marches Of the unknown crowded nations. All the land was full of people, Restless, struggling, toiling, striving, Speaking many tongues, yet feeling But one heart-beat in their bosoms. In the woodlands rang their axes, Smoked their towns in all the valleys ; Over all the lakes and rivers Rushed their great canoes of thunder. Longfellow’s Song of Hiawatha. CONTENTS Tage INTRODUCTION, 13 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF THE WEST 17 OHIO 57 Boundaries and Extent, 58 Bivers, 58 Climate, 59 Surface, Soil, &c., 60 Agriculture, 61 Internal Improvements, 62 Government, 63 Education, 64 Religion, &c., 65 Population, 65 Cincinnati, .66 Cleveland, 75 Columbus, 77 INDIANA, Boundaries and Extent, 84 Rivers, 84 Climate, 85 Surface and Soil, 85 Agriculture, 86 Indianapolis, New Albany, 83 Internal Improvements, 87 Government, S8 Education, 88 Religious Statistics, 89 Population, 90 90 92 ILLINOIS, 95 Boundaries and Extent, 96 Rivers, 97 Climate, 97 Surface anl Soil, 98 Agriculture, ,99 Nauvoo,. Chicago, Internal Improvements, 100 Government, 101 Education, 102 Religion, 103 Population, 103 103 105 MICHIGAN, 112 Boundaries and Extent, . . .11 2 Rivers and Lakes, 113 Climate, 116 Surface and Soil, 117 Agriculture, 118 Internal Improvements, 119 Government, 120 Education, 120 Religious Statistics, 121 Population, 121 Detroit, Lansing, 1 * 122 125 393247 6 CONTENTS, WISCONSIN 12? Boundaries and Extent, 127 Bivers, 128 Climate, 128 Surface and Soil, 129 Agriculture, 132 Internal Improvements, 133 Madison, . . Milwaukee, Railroads in Wisconsin, in 1856, 134 Government, 135 Education, 135 Religious Statistics, 136 Population, 136 136 138 IOWA, 142 Boundaries and Extent, 142 Rivers, 143 Climate, 144 Surface and Soil, 145 AgTiculture, 146 Davenport, Dubuque, . . Internal Improvements, 147 Education, .153 Religious Statistics, 154 Population, 154 155 157 MISSOURI, 161 Boundaries and Extent, 161 Rivers, 162 Climate, 163 Surface, Soil, &c., 164 Agriculture, 164 Internal Improvements, 165 St. Louis, Railroads in Missouri in 1856, 167 Government, 168 Education, 168 Religion, ....169 Population, 169 The Mines of Missouri, 169 171 KANSAS, 177 Position and Boundaries, 178 Rivers, 178 Climate, 189 Surface and Soil, 190 Agriculture, 193 Prices Current, 193 Missouri Compromise, 194 Organization, 196 Squatter Laws, 196 Population, 198 Leavenworth City, . Lawrence, Fort Leavenworth, Topeca Fort Riley, Manhattan, Franklin, Grasshopper Falls, Osawatomie Kickapoo, Atchison Donaphin, 198 199 200 201 201 .201 202 202 .202 203 ,203 .203 INFORMATION TO KANSAS EMIGRANTS, 203 CONSTITUTION OF AMERICAN SETTLEMENT CO 221 Proposals and Plans, 223 OCTAGON SETTLEMENT COMPANY 225 VEGETARIAN SETTLEMENT COMPANY .....226 CONTENTS 7 NEBRASKA Settlements, MINNESOTA, Internal Improvements, Education. Religious Statistics, . . . . Population, St. Paul, . . . . Sx. Anthony, j5ounuanes auu extent, zo< Rivers, 238 Climate, 239 Surface and Soil, 239 Agriculture 240 227 . .235 237 ..241 ,.241 ,.242 ..242 243 245 TEXAS, 248 Boundaries and Extent, 249 Rivers, 250 Climate, 250 Surface and Soil, 251 Agriculture, 253 Internal Improvements, 254 Government, 254 Education, 255 Religion, 256 Population, 257 Sam Houston on the Future of Texas, 25^ NEW MEXICO, 266 Surface and Soil, 267 | Population, 268 UTAH, 269 OREGON, 278 Agriculture, 2S7 WASHINGTON TERRITORY, 288 CALIFORNIA, 298 Boundaries and Extent, 299 Rivers, 300 Climate, 301 Surface and Soil, 304 Agriculture, 306 Government, 306 Sax Francisco, Education, 307 Population, 308 The Mines, 310 Col. Fremont’s Explorations, 314 The Yankees in California, 321 Col. Fremont and his Mariposa Grant,. 329 330 RIVERS, . . . . Ohio River, Distances, Mississippi River,. .335 1 Distances, .340 Missouri River,, .341 * Distances, 335 .353 .353 .357 Hon. Thomas H. Benton’s Speech on the Pacific Railroad Bill, 358 ROUTES TO THE WEST 393 Great Western Railroad Route; 393 Via Fitchburg, Cheshire, Rutland and Burlington, 394 From New York to St. Louis, 394 From the Principal Places in Northern New England, 395 Passenger and Express Route to California, 396 / if THE GREAT WEST. The Land of Promise, and the Canaan of our time, is the region which, commencing on the slope of the Alleghanies, broadens grandly over the vast prairies and mighty rivers, over queenly lakes and lofty moun- tains, until the ebb and flow of the Pacific tide kisses the golden shores of the El Dorado. With a soil more fertile than human agriculture has yet tilled ; with a climate balmy and healthful, such as no other land in other zones can claim ; with facilities for internal communication which outrival the world in extent and grandeur, — it does indeed present to the nations a land where the wildest dreamer on the future of our race may one day see actualized a destiny far outreaching in splendor his most gorgeous visions. To the New England man, who has been nurtured among the bleak hills and the rough, rocky valleys of his native section, where land is scant and food scan- 2 14 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OR tier, where the farmer laboriously cultivates his little patch of ground, and gets therefrom hut a small return for his toilsome labors, let him turn his gaze to the broad fields of the West, and there behold the ne plus ultra of farming — an agriculture worthy of the name. There will he see the field where his busy brain and thinking hand can find space and material to work, and an opportunity to rear from its virgin civilization institutions which shall bless generations yet to be. 0, the soul kindles at the thought of what a magnifi- cent empire the West is but the germ, which, blessed with liberty and guaranteeing equal rights to all, shall go on conquering and to conquer, until the whole earth shall resound with its fame and glory ! The hardy yeomanry of New England are peopling by thousands on thousands this land of “ milk and honey,” carrying with them the indomitable Anglo- Saxon energy, and the stern virtues of their fathers, and more than all, minds which the common school has trained into strong intellectual growth, thus fitting them to be the master spirits of the new era. The old world, cursed with despotism, is pouring out its oppressed millions into the lap of the West, and they will furnish the hardy sinews which, directed by New England minds, shall lay the untold bounties of nature under contribution, and swell the tide of wealth. When a Pacific railway shall connect the farthest east and the farthest west within a few days’ travel, and the now almost limitless deserts shall “ blossom as the THE GREAT WEST. 15 rose,” inhabited by teeming millions pursuing their avocations peacefully, and each contributing his part to the good of all, it will be a consummation which the mind is lost in contemplating, and of which the imagi- nation is powerless to form an adequate conception. The rapid strides which the West has made in civil- ization and in wealth are marvellous. Every body is acquainted with them, from the child who goes to school to the patriarch with the snows of eighty win- ters on his brow, — how Cincinnati, Chicago, and St. Louis, the spots on which they stand, but a few years since unbroken forests, have sprung into existence and grown with such rapidity and power that they now outrival in wealth and population the older cities of the East, with two centuries of growth on their record ; how new States, like Ohio, are wresting the rod of empire from their eastern sisters, and are overshadow- ing the rest with their power and influence. The subjects which we shall treat on in this work are of lasting and deep interest to every man, woman, and child on the continent. They need no apology. No one who has a spark of patriotism animating his bosom will turn away from the glowing annals of the West. With resources such as Nature has vouchsafed to no other clime, blessed with a race of men who are no idlers in their vineyard, but chaining all the elements into their service until there seems no limit to their acquisitions, there cannot fail to be set up along its mighty rivers and over its broad prairies a pavilion of 16 THE GAEDEN OF THE WORLD, OB human progress which shall bless mankind. This structure is yet in process of erection : the materials of construction, workmen ascending and descending, mar its present appearance ; but when the work is finished the scaffolding will fall, and the noble edifice will start in its wondrous beauty before an astonished world ! We will not enlarge upon this topic here. Our province lies with things as they now exist, and the reader will pardon us for indulging in these remarks upon the future of The Gabden of the World. THE GREAT WEST. 17 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF THE WEST. With the intention of giving a clear and succinct view of the Garden of the World, we shall com- mence with a synopsis of its history, carefully compiled for the Great West. Twenty years after the great event occurred which has immortalized the name of Christopher Columbus, Florida was discovered by Juan Ponce de Leon, ex- governor of Porto Rico. Sailing from that island in March, 1512, he discovered an unknown country, which he named Florida, from the abundance of its flowers, the trees being covered with blossoms, and its first being seen on Easter Sunday, a day called by the Spaniards Pascua Florida ; the name imports the coun- try of flowers. Other explorers soon visited the same coast. In May, 1539, Ferdinand de Soto, the gov- ernor of Cuba, landed at Tampa Bay with six hundred followers. He marched into the interior, and on the 1st of May, 1641, discovered the Mississippi ; being the first European who had ever beheld that mighty river, o * Lk 18 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OR Spain for many years claimed the whole of the coun- try hounded by the Atlantic to the Gulf of St. Law- rence on the north, all of which bore the name of Florida. About twenty years after the discovery of the Mississippi, some Catholic missionaries attempted to form settlements at St. Augustine and its vicinity ; and a few years later a colony of French Calvinists had been established on the St. Mary’s, near the coast. In 1565 this settlement was annihilated by an expe- dition from Spain, under Pedro Melendez de Aviles, and about nine hundred French, men, women, and children, cruelly massacred. The bodies of many of the slain were hung from trees, with the inscription, “ Not as Frenchmen , but as heretics .” Having accom- plished his bloody errand, Melendez founded St. Au- gustine, the oldest town by half a century of any now in the Union. Four years after, Dominic de Gourges, burning to avenge his countrymen, fitted out an expe- dition at his own expense, and surprised the Spanish colonists on the St. Mary’s, destroying the ports, burn- ing the houses, and ravaging the settlements with fire and sword, finishing the work by also suspending some of the corpses of his enemies from trees, with the in- scription, “ Not as Spaniards , but as murderers .” Un- able to hold possession of the country, De Gourges re- tired to his fleet. Florida, excepting for a few years, remained under the Spanish crown, suffering much in its early history from the vicissitudes of war and pi- ratical incursions, until 1819, when, vastly diminished from its original boundaries, it was ceded to the United States, and in 1845 became a state. THE GREAT WEST. 19 Iii 1535 James Cartier, a distinguished French mariner, sailed with an exploring expedition up the St. Lawrence, and taking possession of the country in the name of his king, called it “ New France.” In 1608 the energetic Champlain created a nucleus for the settlement of Canada by founding Quebec. This was the same year with the settlement of Jamestown, Virginia, and twelve years previous to that on which the Puritans first stepped upon the rocks of Plymouth. To strengthen the establishment of French domin- ion, the genius of Champlain saw that it was essential to establish missions among the Indians. Up to this period “ the far west ” had been untrod by the foot of the white man. In 1616 a French Franciscan, named Le Caron, passed through the Iroquois and Wyandot nations to streams running into Lake Huron ; and in 1634, two Jesuits founded the first mission in that region. But just a century elapsed from the discovery of the Mississippi ere the first Canadian envoys met the savage nations of the north-west at the Falls of St. Mary’s, below the outlet of Lake Superior. It was not until 1659 that any of the adventurous fur traders wintered on the shores of tins vast lake, nor until 1660 that Rene Mesnard founded the first missionary station upon its rocky and inhospitable coast. Perishing soon after in the forest, it was left to Father Claude Allouez, five years subsequent, to build the first permanent habitation of white men among the north-western In- dians. In 1668 the mission was founded at the Falls of St. Marys, by Dablon and Marquette ; in 1670 20 THE GARDEN OP THE WORLD, OR Nicholas Perrot, agent for the intendant of Canada, explored Lake Michigan to near its southern termina- tion. Formal possession was taken of the north-west by the French in 1671, and Marquette established a missionary station at Point St. Ignace, on the main land north of Mackinac, which was the first settlement in Michigan. Until late in this century, owing to the enmity of the Indians bordering the Lakes Ontario and Erie, the adventurous missionaries, on their route west, on pain of death, were compelled to pass far to the north, through “ a region horrible with forests,” by the Otta- wa and French Rivers of Canada. As yet no Frenchman had advanced beyond Fox River, of Winnebago Lake, in Wisconsin ; but in May, 1673, the missionary Marquette, with a few compan- ions, left Mackinac in canoes, passed up Green Bay, entered Fox River, crossed the country to the Wiscon- sin, and, following its current, passed into and discovered the Mississippi ; down which they sailed several hun- dred miles, and returned in the autumn. The discov- ery of this great river gave great joy in New France, it being “ a pet idea ” of that age that some of its west- ern tributaries would afford a direct route to the South Sea, and thence to China. Monsieur La Salle, a man of indefatigable enterprise, having been several years engaged in the preparation, in 1682 explored the Mis- sissippi to the sea, and took formal possession of the country in the name of the King of France, in honor of whom he called it Louisiana. In 1685 he also took THE GREAT WEST. 21 formal possession of Texas, and fomlded a colony on the Colorado ; but La Salle was assassinated, and the colony dispersed. The descriptions of the beauty and magnificence of the Valley of the Mississippi, given by these explorers, led many adventurers from the cold climate of Canada to follow the same route, and commence settlements. About the year 1680 Kaskaskia and Cahokia, the oldest towns in the Mississippi Valley, were founded. Kaskaskia became the capital of the Illinois country, and in 1721 a Jesuit college and monastery were founded there. A peace with the Iroquois, Hurons, and Ottawas, in 1700, gave the French facilities for settling the western part of Canada. In June, 1701, De la Motte Cadillac, with a Jesuit missionary and a hundred men, laid the foundation of Detroit. All of the extensive region south of the lakes was now claimed by the French, under the name of Canada, or New France. This ex- cited the jealousy of the English, and the New York legislature passed a law for hanging every Popish priest that should come voluntarily into the province. The French, chiefly through the mild and conciliating course of their missionaries, had gained so much in- fluence over the western Indians that, when a war broke out with England in 1711, the most powerful of the tribes became their allies; and the latter unsuo cessfully attempted to restrict their claims to the coun- try south of the lakes. The Fox nation, allies of the English, in 1713 made an attack upon Detroit, but 22 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OR were defeated by the French and their Indian allies. The treaty of Utrecht, this year, ended the war. By the year 1720, a profitable trade had arisen in furs and agricultural products between the French of Louisiana and those of Illinois, and settlements had been made on the Mississippi, below the junction of the Illinois. To confine the English to the Atlantic coast, the French adopted the plan of forming a line of military posts, to extend from the great northern lakes to the Mexican Gulf ; and, as one of the links of the chain, Fort Chartres was built on the Missis- sippi, near Kaskaskia ; and in its vicinity soon flour- ished the villages of Cahokia and Prairie du Roclier. The Ohio at this time was but little known to the French, and on their early maps was but an insignifi- cant stream. Early in this century their missionaries had penetrated to the sources of the Alleghany. In 1721, Joncaire, a French agent and trader, established himself among the Senecas at Lewistown, and Fort Niagara was erected, near the falls, five years subse- quent, In 1735, according to some authorities, Post St. Vincent was erected on the Wabash. Almost coeval with this was the military post of Presque Isle, on the site of Erie, Penn., and from thence a cordon of posts extended on the Alleghany to Pittsburg, and from thence down the Ohio to the Wabash.* * A map published at London, in 1755, gives the following list of French posts, as then existing in the west. Two on French Creek, in the vicinity of Erie, Penn. ; Duquesne, on the site of Pittsburg ; Miamis, on the Maumee, near the site of Toledo ; Sandusky, on San- THE GREAT WEST. 23 In 1749 the French regularly explored the Ohio, and formed alliances with the Indians in Western New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. The English, who claimed the whole west to the Pacific, hut whose settle- ments were confined to the comparatively narrow strip east of the mountains, were jealous of the rapidly in- creasing power of the French in the west. Not con- tent with exciting the savages to hostilities against them, they stimulated private enterprise by granting six hundred thousand acres of clioice land on the Ohio to the “ Ohio Company.” By the year 1751 there were in the Illinois country the settlements of Caliokia, five miles below the site of St. Louis ; St. Philip’s, forty-five miles farther down the river; St. Genevieve, a little lower still; and on the east side of the Mississippi, Fort Chartres, Kaskaskia, and Prairie du Rocher. The largest of these was Kas- kaskia, which at one time contained nearly three thou- sand souls. In 1748 the Ohio Company, composed mainly of wealthy Virginians, despatched Christopher Gist to explore the country, gain the good will of the Indians, and ascertain the plans of the French. Crossing over dusky Bay; St. Joseph’s, on St. Joseph’s Eh sr, Michigan; Poncliar- train, site of Detroit; Massillimacinac ; one on Fox River, Green Bay ; Crevecosur, on the Illinois ; Rockfort, or Fort St. Louis, on the Illinois; Vincennes; Cahokia; Kaskaskia; and one at each of the mouths of the Wabash, Ohio, and Missouri. Other posts not named were built about that time. On the Ohio, just below Portsmouth, are ruins, supposed to be those of a French fort, as they had a post there during Braddock’s war. 24 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OR land to the Ohio, he pi'oceeded down it to the Great Miami, up which he passed to the towns of the Mi- amies, about fifty miles north of the site of Dayton. The next year the company established a trading post in that vicinity, on Loramies Creek, the first point of English settlement in the western country ; it was soon after broken up by the French. In the year 1753, Dinwiddie, governor of Virginia, sent George Washington, then twenty-one years of age, as commissioner, to remonstrate with the French com- mandant, who was at Fort le Bceuf, near the site of Erie, Penn., against encroachments of the French. The English claimed the country by virtue of her first royal charters, the French by the stronger title of discovery and possession. The result of the mission proving unsatisfactory, the English, although it was a time of peace, raised a force to expel the invaders from the Ohio and its tributaries. A detachment under Lieutenant Ward erected a fort on the site of Pitts- burg ; hut it was surrendered shortly after, in April, 1754, to a superior force of French and Indians under Contrecceur, and its garrison peaceably permitted to retire to the frontier post of Cumberland. Contre- cceur then erected a strong fortification at “ the fork,” under the name of Fort Duquesne. Measures were now taken by both nations for the struggle that was to ensue. On the 28th of May, a strong detachment of Virginia troops, under Washing- ton, surprised a small body of French from Fort Du- quesne, killed its commander, M. Jumonville, and ten THE GREAT WEST. 25 men, and took nearly all the rest prisoners. He then fell back and erected Fort Necessity, near the site of Uniontown. In July he was attacked by a large body of French and Indians, commanded by M. Villiers, and, after a gallant resistance, compelled to capitulate, with permission to retire unmolested, and under the ex- press stipulation that farther settlements or forts should not be founded by the English, west of the mountains, for one year. On the 9th of July, 1755, General Braddock * was defeated within ten miles of Fort Duquesne. His army, composed mainly of veteran English troops, passed into an ambuscade formed by a far inferior body of French and Indians, who, lying concealed in two deep ravines each side of his line of march, poured in upon the compact body of their enemy volleys of musketry, with almost perfect safety to them- selves. The Virginia provincials, under Washington, * Braddock was totally unfit to head an important military expe- dition. Vain, rash, arrogant, and without military capacity, a broken- down debauchee and gambler, he was hated and despised the moment he assumed the command. “We have a general,” wrote the brave and accomplished William Shirley, from the camp at Cumberland, to his friend Gouverneur Morris, at Philadelphia, “ most judiciously disquali- fied for the service he is employed in, in almost every respect. I am greatly disgusted in seeing an expedition, as it is called, so ill con- certed in England, so ill appointed, and so improperly conducted since in America. I shall be very happy to retract hereafter what I have said, and submit to be censured as moody and apprehensive. I hope, my dear Morris, to spend a tolerable ■winter with you at Phila- delphia.” Poor Shirley never saw that winter. He was shot through the brain at the beginning of the battle. 3 26 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OR by their knowledge of border warfare and cool bravery, alone saved the army from complete ruin. Braddock was himself- mortally wounded by a provincial named Fausett. A brother of the latter had disobeyed the silly orders of the general that the troops should not take positions behind the trees, when Braddock rode up and struck him down. Fausett, who saw the whole transaction, immediately drew up his rifle and shot him through the lungs, partly from revenge and partly as a measure of salvation to the army, which was being sacrificed to his headstrong obstinacy and inexperience. The result of this battle gave the French and In- dians a complete ascendency on the Ohio, and put a check to the operations of the English, west of the mountains, for two or three years. In July, 1758, General Forbes, with seven thousand men, left Carlisle, Penn., for the west. A corps in advance, princi- pally of Highland Scotch, under Major Grant, were on the 18th of September defeated in the vicinity of Fort Duquesne, on the site of Pittsburg. A short time after, the French and Indians made an unsuccess- ful attack upon the advanced guard, under Colonel Boquet. In November the commandant of Fort Duquesne, unable to cope with the superior force approaching under Forbes, abandoned the fortress, and descended to New Orleans. On his route he erected Fort Massac, so called in honor of M. Massac, who superintended its construction. It was upon the Ohio, within forty THE GREAT WEST. 27 miles of its mouth, and witliin the limits of Illinois. Forbes repaired Fort Duquesne, and changed its name to Fort Pitt, in honor of the English prime minister. The English were now for the first time in possession of the Upper Ohio. In the spring they established several posts in that region, prominent among which was Fort Burd, or Bedstone Old Fort, on the site of Brownsville. Owing to the treachery of Governor Lyttleton, in 1760, by which twenty-two Cherokee chiefs on an em- bassy of peace were made prisoners at Fort George, on the Savannah, that nation flew to arms, and for a while desolated the frontiers of Virginia and the Carolinas. Fort Loudon, in East Tennessee, having been besieged by the Indians, the garrison capitulated on the 7th of August, and on the day afterwards, while on the route to Fort George, were attacked and the greater part massacred. In the summer of 1761 Colonel Grant invaded their country, and compelled them to sue for peace. On the north the most brilliant success had attended the British arms. Ticonderoga, Crown Point, Fort Niagara, and Quebec were taken in 1759, and the nest year Montreal fell, and with it all of Canada. By the treaty of Paris, in 1763, France gave up her claim to New France and Canada, embracing all the country east of the Mississippi from its source to the Bayou Iberville. The remainder of her Mississippi possessions, embracing Louisiana west of the Mississip- pi, and the Island of Orleans, she soon after secretly 28 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OR ceded to Spain, which terminated the dominion of France on this continent, and her vast plans for empire. At this period Lower Louisiana had become of con- siderable importance. The explorations of La Salle in the Lower Mississippi country were renewed in 1697 by Lemoine D’Iberville, a brave French naval officer. Sailing with two vessels, he entered the Mississippi in March, 1698, by the Bayou Iberville. He built forts on the Bay of Biloxi, and at Mobile, both of which were deserted for the Island of Daupliine, which for years was the head quarters of the colony. He also erected Fort Balise, at the mouth of the river, and fixed on the site of Fort Rosalie ; which latter became the scene of a bloody Indian war. After his death, in 1706, Louisiana was but little more than a wilderness ; and a vain search for gold, and trading in furs, rather than the substantial pur- suits of agriculture, allured the colonists, and much time was lost in journeys of discovery, and in collect- ing furs among distant tribes. Of the occupied lands, Biloxi was a barren sand, and the soil of the Isle of Daupliine poor. Bienville, the brother and successor of D’Iberville, was at the fort on the Delta of the Mis- sissippi, where he and his soldiers were liable to inun- dations, and held joint possession with mosquitoes, frogs, snakes, and alligators. In 1712 Antoine de Crozat, an East India merchant, of vast wealth, purchased a grant of the entire coun- try, with the exclusive right of commerce for sixteen years. But in 1717, the speculation having resulted THE GREAT WEST. 29 in his ruin, and to the injury of the colonists, he sur- rendered his privileges. Soon after, a number of other adventurers, under the name of the Mississippi Compa- ny, obtained from the French government a charter which gave them all the rights of sovereignty, except the bare title, including a complete monopoly of the trade and the mines. Their expectations were chiefly from the mines ; and on the strength of a former traveller, Nicolas Perrot, having discovered a copper mine in the valley of St. Peter’s, the directors of the company assigned to the soil of Louisiana silver and gold, and to the mud of the Mississippi diamonds and pearls. The notorious Law, who then resided at Pai-is, was the secret agent of the company. To form its capital, its shares were sold at five hundred livres each ; and such was the speculating mania of the times, that in a short time more than a hundred millions were realized. Although this proved ruinous to individuals, yet the colony was greatly benefited by the consequent emigration, and agriculture and commerce flourished. In 1719 Renault, an agent of the Mississippi Compa- ny, left France with about tvfo hundred miners and emi- grants, to carry out the mining schemes of the company.. He bought five hundred slaves at St. Domingo, to work the mines, which he conveyed to Illinois in 1720. He established himself a few miles above Kaskaskia, and founded there the village of St. Philip’s. Extrava- gant expectations existed in France of his probable success in obtaining gold and silver. He sent out ex- ploring pax-ties in various sections of Illinois and Mis- 30 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OR souri. His explorations extended to the banks of the Ohio and Kentucky Rivers, and even to the Cumber- land valley in Tennessee, where, at “ French Lick,” on the site of Nashville, the French established a trading post. Although Renault was wofully disap- pointed in not discovering extensive mines of gold or silver, yet he made various discoveries of lead ; among which were the mines north of Potosi, and those on the St. Francois. He eventually turned his whole atten- tion to the smelting of lead, of which he made consid- erable quantities and shipped to France. He remained in the country until 1744. Nothing of consequence was again done in mining until after the American revolution. In 1718 Bienville laid out the town of New Orleans, on the plan of Rochefort, France. Some four years after, the bankruptcy of Law threw the colony into the greatest confusion, and occasioned wide-spread ruin in France, where speculation had been carried to an ex- treme unknown before. The expenditures for Louisiana were consequently stopped ; but the colony had now gained strength to struggle for herself. Louisiana was then divided into nine cantons, of which Arkansas and Illinois formed each one. About this time the colony had considerable difficul- ty with the Indian tribes, and were involved in wars with the Chiekasaws and the Natchez. This latter named tribe were finally completely conquered. The remnant of them dispersed among other Indians, so THE GREAT WEST. 31 tliat that once powerful people, as a distinct race, was entirely lost. Their name alone survives as that of a flourishing city. Tradition related singular stories of the Natchez. It was believed that they emigrated from Mexico, and were kindred to the Incas of Peru. The Natchez alone, of all the Indian tribes, had a con- secrated temple, where a perpetual fire was maintained by appointed guardians. Near the temple, on an arti- ficial mound, stood the dwelling of their chief, called the Great Sun, who was supposed to be descended from that luminary, and all around were grouped the dwellings of the tribe. His power was absolute ; the dignity was hereditary, and transmitted exclusively through the female line, and the race of nobles was so distinct that usage had moulded language into the forms of reverence. In 1732 the Mississippi Company relinquished their charter to the king, after holding possession fourteen years. At this period Louisiana had five thousand whites and twenty-five hundred blacks. Agriculture was improving in all the nine cantons, particularly in Illinois, which was considered the granary of the colo- ny. Louisiana continued to advance until the war broke out with England in 1755, which resulted in the overthrow of French dominion. Immediately after the peace of 176.3, all the old French forts in the west, as far as Green Bay, were re paired and garrisoned with British troops. Agents and surveyors, too, were making examinations of the finest lands east and ncrtli-east of the Ohio. Judging 32 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OR from the past, the Indians were satisfied that the Brit- ish intended to possess the whole country. The cele- brated Ottawa chief, Pontiac, burning with hatred against the English, in that year formed a general league with the western tribes, and by the middle of May all- the western posts had fallen, or were closely besieged by the Indians, and the whole frontier, for almost a thousand miles, suffered from the merciless fury of savage warfare. Treaties of peace were made with the different tribes of Indians in the year follow- ing, at Niagara, by Sir William Johnson; at Detroit or vicinity by General Bradstreet ; and in what is now Coshocton county, Ohio, by Colonel Boquet ; at the German Flats, on the Mohawk, with the Six Nations and their confederates. By these treaties extensive tracts were ceded by the Indians, in New York and Pennsylvania, and south of Lake Erie. Peace having been concluded, the excitable frontier population began to cross the mountains. Small settle- ments were formed on the main routes, extending north towards Port Pitt, and south to the head waters of the Holston and Clinch, in the vicinity of South-western Virginia. In 1766 a town was laid out in the vicinity of Fort Pitt. Military land warrants had been issued in great numbers, and a perfect mania for western land had taken possession of the people of the middle colonies. The treaty made by Sir William Johnson at Fort Stanwix, on the site of Utica, New York, in Oc- tober, 1768, with the Six Nations and their confeder- ates, and those of Hard Labor and Lochaber, made THE GREAT WEST. 33 with the Cherokees, afforded a pretext under which the settlements were advanced. It was now falsely claimed that the Indian title was extinguished east and south of the Ohio, to an indefinite extent, and the spirit of emigration and speculation in land greatly increased. Among the land companies formed at this time was the “ Mississippi Company,” of which George Washington was an active member. Up to this period very little was known by the Eng- lish of the country south of the Ohio. In 1754 James M. Bride, with some others, had passed down the Ohio in canoes, and, landing at the mouth of the Kentucky River, marked the initials of their names, and the date, on the barks of trees. On their return, they were the first to give a particular account of the beauty and rich- ness of the country to the inhabitants of the British set- tlements. No further notice seems to have been taken of Kentucky until the year 1767, when John Finlay, an Indian trader, with others, passed through a part of the rich lands of Kentucky, then called by the In- dians “ the Dark and Bloody Ground .” Finlay, re- turning to North Carolina, fired the curiosity of his neighbors by the reports of the discoveries he had made. In consequence of this information, Colonel Daniel Boone, in company with Finlay, Stewart, Hol- den, Monay, and Cool, set out from their residence :.n the Yadkin, in North Carolina, May 1, 1769, and after a long and fatiguing march over a mountainous and pathless wilderness, arrived on the Red River. Here, from the top of an eminence, Boone and his compan- 34 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OR ions first beheld a distant view of the beautiful lands of Kentucky. The plains and forests abounded with wild beasts of every kind; deer and elk were common; the buffalo were seen in herds, and the plains covered with the richest verdure. The glowing descriptions of these adventurers inflamed the imaginations of the borderers, and their own sterile hills and mountains beyond lost their charms when compared to the fertile plains of this newly-discovered Paradise in the West. In 1770 Ebenezer Silas and Jonathan Zane settled Wheeling. In 1771 such was the rush of emigration to Western Pennsylvania and Western Virginia, in the region of the Upper Ohio, that every kind of bread- stuff became so scarce that, for several months, a great part of the population were obliged to subsist entirely on meats, roots, vegetables, and milk, to the entire ex- clusion of all breadstiiffs ; and hence that period was long after known as “ the starving year .” Settlers, enticed by the beauty of the Cherokee country, emi- grated to East Tennessee, and hundreds of families also moved farther south, to the mild climate of West Florida, which at this period extended to the Mississippi. In the summer of 1773 Frankfort and Louisville, Ken- tucky, were laid out. The next year was signalized by “ Dunmore’s war,” which temporarily checked the settlements. In the summer of 1774 several other parties of sur- veyors and hunters entered Kentucky, and James Har- rod erected a dwelling, the first erected by whites in the country, on or near the site of Harrodsburg, around THE GREAT WEST. 35 ■which afterwards arose “ Harrod Station.” In the year 1775 Colonel Richard Henderson, a native of North Carolina, in behalf of himself and his associates, pur- chased of the Cherokees all the country lying between the Cumberland River and Cumberland Mountains, and Kentucky River, and south of the Ohio, which now comprises more than half of the State of Kentucky. The new country he named Transylvania. The first legislature sat at Boonesborough, and formed an inde- pendent government, on liberal and rational principles. Henderson was very active in granting lands to new settlers. The legislature of Virginia subsequently crushed his schemes ; they claimed the sole right to purchase lands from the Indians, and declared his purchase null and void. But as some compensation for the services rendered in opening the wilderness, the legislature granted to the proprietors a tract of land, twelve miles square, on the Ohio, below the mouth of Green River. In 1775 Daniel Boone, in the employment of Hen- derson, laid out the town and fort afterwards called Boonesborough. From this time Boonesborough and Harrodsburg became the nucleus and support of emi- gration and settlement in Kentucky. In May another fort was also built, which was under the command of Colonel Benjamin Logan, and named Bogart’s Fort. It stood on the site of Stanford, in Lincoln county, and became an important post. In 1776 the jurisdiction of Virginia was formally extended over the colony of Transylvania, which was 36 THE GARDEN OP THE WORLD, OR organized into a county named Kentucky, and the first court was held at Harrodsburg in the spring of 1787. At this time the war of the revolution was in full progress, and the early settlers of Kentucky were par- ticularly exposed to the incursions of the Indian allies of Great Britain, a detailed account of which is else- where given in this volume. The early French settle- ments in the Illinois country, now being in posses- sion of that power, formed important ppints around which the British assembled the Indians, and instigated them to murderous incursions against the pioneer population. The year 1779 was marked, iu Kentucky, by the passage of the Virginia land laws. At this time there existed claims of various kinds to the western lands. Commissioners were appointed to examine and give judgment upon these various claims as they might be presented. These having been provided for, the residue of the rich lands of Kentucky were in the market. As a consequence of the passage of these laws, a vast number of emigrants crossed the moun- tains into Kentucky to locate land warrants ; and in the years 1779, 1780, and 1781, the great and absorb- ing topic in Kentucky was to enter, survey, and obtain patents for the richest lands, and this, too, in the face of all the horrors and dangers of an Indian war. Although the main features of the Virginia land laws were just and liberal, yet a great defect existed in their not providing for a general survey of the coun- try by the parent state, and its subdivision into sections THE GREAT WEST. 37 and parts of sections. Each warrant holder being required to make his own survey, and having the privilege of locating according to his pleasure, in- terminable confusion arose from want of precision in the boundaries. In unskilful hands, entries, sur- veys, and patents were jailed upon each other, overlapping and crossing in inextricable confusion ; hence, when the country became densely populated, arose vexatious lawsuits and perplexities. Such men as Kenton and Boone, who had done so much for the welfare of Kentucky in its early days of trial, found their indefinite entries declared null and void, and were dispossessed, in their old age, of any claim upon that soil for which they had perilled their all. The close of the revolutionary war, for a time only, suspended Indian hostilities, when the Indian war was again carried on with renewed energy. This arose from the failure of both countries from fully executing the terms of the treaty. By it England was obliged to surrender the north-western posts within the boundaries of the Union, and to return slaves taken during the war. The United States, on their part, had agreed to offer no legal obstacles to the collection of debts due from her citizens to those of Great Britain. Virginia, indignant at the removal of her slaves by the British fleet, by law prohibited the collection of British debts, while England, in conse- quence, refused to deliver up the posts, so that they 4 38 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OK were held by her more than ten years, .in til Jay’s treaty was concluded. Settlements rapidly advanced. Simon Kenton having, in 1784, erected a block-house on the site of Maysville, — then called Limestone, — that became the point from whence the stream of emigration, from down its way on the Ohio, turned into tire interior. In the spring of 1783, the first court in Kentucky was held at Harrodsburg. At this period the estab- lishment of a government independent of Virginia appeared to be of paramount necessity, in consequence of troubles with the Indians. For this object the first convention in Kentucky was held at Danville, in De- cember, 1784 ; but it was not consummated until eight separate conventions had been held, running through a term of sis years. The last was assem- bled in July, 1790; on the 4th of February, 1791, Congress passed the act admitting Kentucky into the Union, and in the April following she adopted a state constitution. Prior to this, unfavorable impressions prevailed in Kentucky against the Union, in consequence of the inability of Congress to compel a surrender of the north-west posts, and the apparent disposition of the northern states to yield to Spain, for twenty years, the sole right to navigate the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico, the exclusive right to which was claimed by that power as being within her dominions. Kentucky was suffering under the horrors of Indian warfare, and THE GREAT WEST. 39 having no government of her own, saw that that beyond the mountains was unable to afford them protection. When in the year 1786 several states in Congress showed a disposition to yield the right of navigating the Mississippi to Spain, for certain com- mercial advantages, which would enure to their bene- fit, but not in the least to that of Kentucky, there arose a universal voice of dissatisfaction ; and many were in favor of declaring the independence of Ken- tucky, and erecting an independent government west of the mountains. Spain was then an immense land holder in the west. She claimed all east of the Mississippi lying- south of the 31st degree of north latitude, and all west of that river to the ocean. In May, 1787, a convention was assembled at Dan ville to remonstrate . with Congress against the propo- sition of ceding the navigation of the Mississippi to Spain ; but it having been ascertained that Congress, through the influence of Virginia and the other south- ern states, would not permit this, the convention had no occasion to act upon the subject. In the year 1787 quite a sensation arose in Kentucky, in consequence of a profitable trade having been opened with New Orleans by General Wilkinson, who de- scended thither in June, with a boat load of tobacco and other productions of Kentucky. Previously, all those who ventured down the river within the Spanish settle- ments had their property seized. The lure was then held out by the Spanish minister, that if Kentucky 40 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OR would declare lier independence of the United States, the navigation of the Mississippi should he opened to her ; but that never would this privilege be extended while she was a part of the Union, in consequence of existing commercial treaties between Spain and other European powers. In the winter of 1788-9, the notorious Dr. Connolly, a secret British agent from Canada, arrived in Ken- tucky. His object appeared to be to sound the temper of her people, and ascertain if they were willing to unite with British troops from Canada, and seize upon and hold New Orleans and the Spanish settlements on the Mississippi. He dwelt upon the advantages which it must be to the people of the west to hold and possess the right of navigating the Mississippi ; but his over- tures were not accepted. At this time settlements had been commenced within the present limits of Ohio. Before giving a sketch of these, we glance at the western land claims. The claim of the English monarch to the North- western Territory was ceded to the United States by the treaty of peace, signed at Paris, September 3, 1783. During the pendency of this negotiation, Mr. Oswald, the British commissioner, proposed the River Ohio as the western boundary of the United States, and but for the indomitable, persevering opposition of John Adams, one of the American commissioners, who in- sisted upon the Mississippi as the boundary, this proposition would have probably been acceded to. The states who owned western unappropriated lands THE GREAT WEST. 41 under their original charters from British monarchs, with a single exception, ceded them to the United States. In March, 1784, Virginia ceded the soil and jurisdiction of her lands north-west of the Ohio. In September, 1786, Connecticut ceded her claim to the soil and jurisdiction of her western lands, except- ing that part of Ohio known as the “Western "Reserve,” and to that she ceded her jurisdictional claims in 1800. Massachusetts and New York ceded all their claims. Besides these were the Indian claims, asserted by the right of possession. These have been extinguished by various treaties, from time to time, as the inroads of emigration rendered necessary. The Indian title to a large part of the territory of Ohio having become extinguished, Congress, before settlements were commenced, found it necessary to pass ordinances for the survey and sale of the lands in the North-west Territory. In October, 1787, Manasseh Cutler and Winthrop Sargeant, agents of the New England Ohio Company, made a large purchase of land, bounded south by the Ohio, and west by the Scioto River. Its settlement was commenced at Mari- etta in the spring of 1788, which was the first made by the Americans within Ohio. A settlement had been attempted within the limits of Ohio, on the site of Portsmouth, in April, 1785, by four families from Redstone, Pennsylvania ; but difficulties with the Indians compelled its abandonment. About the time of the settlement of Marietta, Congress appointed General Arthur St. Clair governor, 4* 42 THE GARDEN OP THE WORLD, OR Winthrop Sargeant secretary, and Samuel Hoi den Parsons, James M. Varnum, and John Cleves Symmes judges in and over the Territory. They organized its government and passed laws, and the governor ere'cted the county of Washington, embracing nearly the whole of the eastern half of the present limits of Ohio. In November, 1788, the second settlement within the limits of Ohio was commenced at Columbia, on the Ohio, five miles above the site of Cincinnati, and within the purchase and under the auspices of John Cleves Symmes and associates. Shortly after, settlements were commenced at Cincinnati and at North Bend, sixteen miles below, both within Sym^aes’s purchase. In 1790 another settlement was made at Galliopolis by a colony from France — the name signifying city of the French. On the 9tli of January, 1789, a treaty was conclud- ed at Fort Harmer, at the mouth of the Muskingum, opposite Marietta, by Governor St. Clair, in which the treaty, which had been made four years previous, at Fort M’lntosh, on the site of Beaver, Pennsylvania, was renewed and confirmed. It did not, however, produce the favorable results anticipated. The Indians, the same year, committed numerous murders, which occasioned the alarmed settlers to erect block-houses in each of the new settlements. In June, Major Doughty, with one hundred and forty men, com- menced the erection of Fort Washington, on the site of Cincinnati. In the course of the summer THE GREAT WEST. 43 General Harmer arrived at the fort with three hun- dred men. Negotiations with the Indians proving unfavorable, General Harmer marched, in September, 1790, from Cincinnati with thirteen hundred men, less than one fourth of whom were regulars, to attack thejr towns on the Maumee. He succeeded in burning their towns ; but in an engagement with the Indians, part of his troops met with a severe loss. The next year a larger army was assembled at Cincinnati, under General St. Clair, composed of about three thousand men. With this force he commenced his march towards the Indian towns on the Maumee. Early in the morning of the 4tli of November, 1791, his army, while in camp on what is now the line of Darke and Mercer counties, within three miles of the Indian line, and aboiit seventy north from Cincinnati, were surprised by a large body of Indians, and defeated with terrible slaughter. A third army, under General Anthony Wayne, was organized. On the 20th of August, 1794, they met and completely defeated the Indians, on the Maumee River, about twelve miles south of the site of Toledo. The Indians, at length, becoming convinced of their inability to resist the American arms, sued for peace. On the 3d of August, 1795, General Wayne concluded a treaty at Greenville, sixty miles north of Cincinnati, with eleven of the most powerful north-western tribes, in grand council. This gave peace to the west, of sev- eral years’ duration, during which the settlements pro gressed with great rapidity. Jay’s treaty, concluded 44 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OR November 19, 1791, was a most important event to the prosperity of the west, ft provided for the with- drawal of all the British troops from the north-western posts. In 1796 the North-western Territory was divid- ed into five counties. Marietta was the seat of justice of Hamilton and Washington counties; Vincennes, of Knox county ; Kaskaskia, of St. Clair county ; and Detroit, of Wayne county. The settlers, out of the limits of Ohio, were Canadian or Creole French. The head quarters of the north-west army were removed to Detroit, at which point a fort had been built by De la Motte Cadillac, as early as 1701. Originally Virginia claimed jurisdiction over a large part of Western Pennsylvania, as being within her dominions ; yet it was not until after the close of the revolution that the boundary line was permanently established. Then this tract was divided into two counties. The one, Westmoreland, extended from the mountains west of the Alleghany River, including Pittsburg and all the country between the Kish- keminitas and the Youghiogeny. The other, Washing- ton, comprised all south and west of Pittsburg, inclusive of all the country east and west of the Monongahela River. At this period Fort Pitt was a frontier post, around which had sprung up the village of Pittsburg, which was not regularly laid out into a town until 1784. The settlement on the Monon- gahela at “ Redstone Old Fort,” or “FortBurd,” as it originally was called, having become an important point of embarkation for western emigrants, was the THE GREAT WEST. 45 next year laid off into a town under the name of Brownsville. Regular forwarding houses were soon established here, by whose lines goods were systemat- ically wagoned over the mountains, thus superseding the slow and tedious mode of transportation by pack- horses, to which the emigrants had previously been obliged to resort. In July, 1786, “The Pittsburg Gazette,” the first newspaper issued in the West, was published; the second being “ The Kentucky Gazette,” established at Lexing- ton in August of the next year. As late as 1791 the Alleghany River was the frontier limit of the settle- ments of Pennsylvania, the Indians holding posses- sion of the region around its north-western tributaries, with the exception of a few scattering settlements, which were all simultaneously broken up and exter- minated in one night, in February of this year, by a band of one hundred and fifty Indians. During the campaigns of Harmer, St. Clair, and Wayne, Pitts- burg was the great depot for the armies. By this time agriculture and manufactures had begun to flourish in Western Pennsylvania and Vir- ginia, and an extensive trade was carried on with the settlements on the Ohio and on the Lower Mis- sissippi, with New Orleans and the rich Spanish settle ments in its vicinity. Monongahela whiskey, horses, cattle, and agricultural and mechanical implements of iron, were the principal articles of export. The Span- ish government soon after much embarrassed this trade by imposing heavy duties. 46 THE GARDEN OP THE WORLD, OR The first settlements in Tennessee were made in the vicinity of Fort Loudon, on the Little Tennessee, in what is now Monroe county, East Tennessee, about the year 1758. Forts Loudon and Chissel were built at that time by Colonel Byrd, who marched into the Cherokee country with a regiment from Virginia. The next year war broke out with the Cherokees. In 1760 the Cherokees besieged Fort Loudon, into which the settlers had gathered their families, numbering nearly three hundred persons. The latter were obliged to surrender for want of provisions, but, agreeably to the terms of capitulation, were to retreat unmolested beyond the Blue Ridge. When they had proceeded about twenty miles on their route, the savages fell upon them and massacred all but nine, not even sparing the women and children. The only settlements were thus broken up by this war. The next year the celebrated Daniel Boone made an excursion from North Carolina to the waters of the Holstein. Li 1766 Colonel James Smith, with five others, travelled a great portion of Middle and West Tennessee. At the mouth of the Tennessee Smith’s companions left him to make farther explorations in Illinois, while he, in company with a negro lad, returned home through the wilderness, after an ab- sence of eleven months, during which he saw “ neither bread, money, women, nor spirituous liquors.” Other explorations soon succeeded, and permanent set- tlements were first made in 1768 and ’69, by emigrants from Virginia and North Carolina, who were scattered THE GREAT WEST. 47 along tlie branches of the Holstein, French, Broad, and Watauga. The jurisdiction of North Carolina was in 1777 extended over the western district, which was organized as the county of Washington, and extending nominally westward to the Mississippi. Soon after, some of the more daring pioneers made a settlement at Bledsoe’s station, in Middle Tennessee, in the heart of the Chickasaw nation, and separated several hundred miles, by the usual travelled route, from them kinsmen on the Holstein. A number of French traders had previously established a trading post and erected a few cabins at the “Bluff” near the site of Nashville. To the same vicinity Colonel James Robertson, in the fall of 1780, emigrated with forty families from North Carolina, who were driven from their homes by the marauding incursions of Tarleton’s cavalry, and estab- lished “ Robertson’s Station,” which formed the nu- cleus around which gathered the settlements on the Cumberland. The Cherokees having commenced hos- tilities upon the frontier inhabitants about the com- mencement of the year 1781, Colonel Campbell, of Virginia,. with seven hundred mounted riflemen, in- vaded their country and defeated them. At the close of the revolution, settlers moved in in large numbers from Virginia, North and South Carolina, and Georgia. Nashville was laid out in the summer of 1784, and named from General Francis Nash, who fell at Bran- dywine. The people of this district, in common with those of Kentucky, and on the Upper Ohio, were deeply niter- 48 THE GARDEN OP THE WORLD, OR ested in the navigation of the Mississippi, and undei the tempting offers of the Spanish governor of Louisi- ana, many were lured to emigrate to West Florida, and become subjects of the Spanish king. North Carolina having ceded her claims to her west- ern lands, Congress, in May, 1790, erected this into a territory under the name of the “ South-western Ter- ritory,” according to the provisions of the ordinance of 1787, excepting the article prohibiting slavery. The territorial government was organized with a legislature, a legislative council, with William Blount as their first governor. Knoxville was made the seat of government. A fort was erected to intimidate the Indians, by the United States, in the Indian country, on the site of Kingston. From this period until the final overthrow of the north-western Indians by Wayne, this territory suffered from the hostilities of the Creeks and Cherokees, who were secretly supplied with arms and ammunition by the Spanish agents, with the hope that they would exterminate the Cumberland settle- ments. In 1795 the territory contained a population of seventy-seven thousand two hundred and sixty-two, of whom about ten thousand were slaves. On the first of June, 1796, it was admitted into the Union as the State of Tennessee. By the treaty of October 27, 1795, with Spain, the old sore, the right of navigating the Mississippi, was closed, that power ceding to the United States the right of free navigation. The Territory of Mississippi was organized in 1798, THE GREAT WEST. 49 and Winthrap Sargeant appointed governor. By the ordinance of 1787 the people of the North-west Terri- tory were entitled to elect representatives to a territo- rial legislature whenever it contained five thousand males of full age. Before the close of the year 1798, tire territory had this number, and members to a terri- torial legislature were soon after chosen. In the year 1799 William H. Harrison was chosen the first dele- gate to Congress from the North-west Territory. In 1800 the Territory of Indiana was formed, and the next year William H. Harrison appointed governor. This territory comprised the present States of Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Michigan, which vast country then had less than six thousand whites, and those mainly of French origin. On the 80th of April, 1802, Congress passed an act authorizing a convention to form a constitution for Ohio. This convention met at Chillicothe in the succeeding November ; and on the 29th of that month a constitution of state government was ratified and signed, by which act Ohio became one of the states of the Federal Union. In October, 1802, the whole western country was thrown into a ferment by the suspension of the American right of depositing goods and produce at New Orleans, guaranteed by the treaty of 1795 with Spain. The whole commerce of the west was struck at in a vital point, and the treaty evidently violated. On the 25th of February, 1808, the port was opened to provisions, on paying a duty, and in April following, by orders of the King of Spain, the right of deposit was restored. 5 50 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OR After the treaty of 1763 Louisiana remained in pos- session of Spain until 1803, when it was again restored to France by the terms of a secret article in the treaty of St. Ildefonso, concluded with Spain in 1800. France held hut brief possession ; on the 30th of April she sold her claim to the United States for the considera- tion of fifteen millions of dollars. On the 20th of the succeeding December Generals Wilkinson and Clai- borne took possession of the country for the United States, and entered New Orleans at the head of the American troops. On the 11th of January, 1805, Congress established the Territory of Michigan, and appointed William Hull governor. This same year Detroit was destroyed by fire. The town occupied only about two acres, com- pletely covered with buildings and combustible mate- rials, excepting the narrow intervals of fourteen or fifteen feet used as streets or lanes, and the whole was environed with a very strong and secure defence of tall and solid pickets. At this period, the conspiracy of Aaron Burr began to agitate the western country. In December, 1806, a fleet of boats, with arms, provisions, and ammunition, belonging to the confederates of Burr, was seized upon the Muskingum, by agents of the United States, which proved a fatal blow to the project. In 1809 the Territory of Illinois was formed from the westerm part of the Indiana Territory, and named from the powerful tribe which once had occupied its soil. The Indians, who, since the treaty of Greenville, had 'HE GREAT WEST. 51 been at peace, about the year 1810 began to commit aggressions upon the inhabitants of the west under the leadership of Tecumseh. The nest year they were defeated by General Harrison, at the battle of Tippe- canoe, in Indiana. This year was also distinguished by the voyage from Pittsburg to New Orleans of the steamboat “ New Orleans,” the first steamer ever launched upon the western waters. In June, 1812, the United States declared war against Great Britain. Of this war the west was the principal theatre. Its opening scenes were as gloomy and disastrous to the American arms as its close was brilliant and triumphant. At the close of the war the population of the Terri- tories of Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan was less than fifty thousand. But from that time onward the tide of emigration again went forward with unprecedented rapidity. On the 19th of April, 1816, Indiana was ad- mitted into the Union, and Illinois on the 3d of De- cember, 1818. The remainder of the North-west Tei’- ritory, as then organized, was included in the Territory of Michigan, of which that section west of Lake Michi- gan bore the name of the Huron District. This part of the west increased so slowly that, by the census of 1830, the Territory of Michigan contained, exclusive of the Huron District, but twenty-eight thousand souls, while that had only a population of three thousand six hundred and forty. Emigration began to set in more strongly to the Territory of Michigan in consequence of steam navigation having been successfully intro- 52 THE GARDEN OP THE WORLD, OR ducetl upon the great lakes of the west. The first steamboat upon these immense inland seas was the “ Walk-in-the-Water,” which, in 1819, went as far as Mackinaw ; yet it was not until 1826 that a steamer rode the waters of Lake Michigan, and six years more had elapsed ere one had penetrated as far as Chicago. The year 1882 was signalized by three important events in the history of the west, viz., the first appear- ance of the Asiatic cholera, the great flood in the Ohio, and the war with Black Hawk. The west has suffered serious drawbacks in its prog- ress from inefficient systems of banking. One bank frequently was made the basis of another, and that of a third, and so on throughout the country. Some three or four shrewd agents or directors, in establish- ing a bank, would collect a few thousands in specie, that had been honestly paid in, and then make up the re- mainder of the capital with the bills or stock from some neighboring bank. Thus, so intimate was the connection of each bank with others, that, when one or two gave way, they all went down together in one common ruin. In 1804, the year succeeding the purchase of Louisi- ana, Congress formed from part of it the “Territory of Orleans,” which was admitted into the Union in 1812, as the State of Louisiana. In 1805, after the Territory of Orleans was erected, the remaining part of the purchase from the French was formed into the Territory of Louisiana, of which the old French town of St. Louis was the capital. This town, the oldest in THE GREAT WEST. 53 the territory, had been founded in 1764, by M. Laclede, agent for a trading association, to whom had been given, by the French government of Louisiana, a mo- nopoly of the commerce in furs and peltries with the Indian tribes of the Missouri and Upper Mississippi. The population of the territory in 1805 was trifling, and consisted mainly of French Creoles and traders, who were scattered along the banks of the Mississippi and the Arkansas. Upon the admission of Louisiana as a state, the name of the Territory of Louisiana was changed to that of Missouri. From the southern part of this, in 1819, was erected the Territory of Arkansas, which then contained but a few thousand inhabitants, who were mainly in detached settlements on the Mis- sissippi and on the Arkansas, in the vicinity of the “ Post of Arkansas.” The first settlement in Arkan- sas was made on the Arkansas Kiver, about the year 1723, upon the grant of the notorious Jo hn Law ; but, being unsuccessful, was soon after abandoned. In 1820 Missouri was admitted into the Union, and Arkansas in 1836. Michigan was admitted as a state in 1837. The Huron District was organized as the Wisconsin Terri- tory in 1836, and was admitted into the Union as a state in 1848. The first settlement in Wisconsin was made in 1665, when Father Claude Allouez established a mission at La Pointe, at the western end of Lake Superior. Four years after, a mission was permanently established at Green Bay ; and eventually the French also established themselves at Prairie du Chien. In 5 * 54 THE GARDEN OP THE WORLD, OR 1819 an expedition, under Governor Cass, explored tlie territory, and found it to be little more than the abode of a few Indian traders, scattered here and there. About this time the government established military posts at Green Bay and Prairie du Chien. About the year 1825 some farmers settled in the vicinity of Gale- na, which had then become a noted mineral region. Immediately after the war with Black Hawk, emigrants flowed in from New York, Ohio, and Michigan, and the flourishing towns of Milwaukie, Sheboygan, Racine, and Southport were laid out on the borders of Lake Michigan. At the conclusion of the same war, the lands west of the Mississippi were thrown open to emi- grants, who commenced settlements in the vicinity of Port Madison and Burlington in 1883. Dubuque had long before been a trading post, and was the first set- tlement in Iowa. It derived its name from Julien Dubuque, an enterprising French Canadian, who, in 1798, obtained a grant of one hundred and forty thou- sand acres from the Indians, upon which he resided until his death in 1810, when he had accumulated im- mense wealth by lead mining and trading. In June, 1838, Iowa was erected into a territory, and in 1846 became a state. In 1849 Minnesota Territory was organized ; it then contained a little less than five thousand souls. The first American establishment in the territory was Fort Snelling, at the mouth of St. Peter’s, or Minnesota River, which was founded in 1819. The French, and afterwards the English, occupied this country with THE GREAT WEST. 55 their fur trading forts. Pembina, on the northern boundary, is the oldest village, having been established in 1812 by Lord Selkirk, a Scottish nobleman, under a grant from the Hudson’s Bay Company. California was admitted into the Union as a sister state in 1850. The Territory of Oregon was organized in 1847, im- mediately after the adjustment of the treaty with Great Britain, and its rapid increase in population will soon justify its citizens in imperatively demanding an admit- tance as the thirty-second state of the confederacy. The Territory of Utah was organized in 1850. A great deal of interest is felt in relation to this embryo state, owing to the religion of its settlers, the Mor- mons, and their “ peculiar institution,” polygamy. The Territory of New Mexico was also organized in 1850. The Territories of Kansas and Nebraska, after the most exciting debate known in congressional annals, were organized in May, 1854. This unparalleled excitement arose from the repeal, in connection with the territorial organization, of the compact known as the Missouri Compromise. Thus “ westward the star of empire takes its way and new states and populous cities spring into life beneath its glowing light with the rapidity of magic. THE GREAT WEST. 57 This state has heretofore been classed among the North-west States of the American Union ; but the vast accumulation of territory lying still farther west and north has left Ohio more properly among the Middle States, on the Atlantic side of the continent : indeed, her relative position, considered in regard to the present north-western possessions of the United States, is actually that of one of the Eastern States of this republic. Marietta, the oldest town in the state, was settled, in 1788, by the “ New England Ohio Company.” The next permanent settlement was at Columbia, in the following year. In 1791, a company of French emigrants founded the town of Gallipolis. Large bodies of New England people, in 1796, settled several towns on Lake Erie. Before the above settle- ments were undertaken, several of the neighboring- states, which, by charter or otherwise, were proprietors of various tracts of unappropriated western lands lying within this territory, had, from time to time, relin- quished their claims ; and numerous Indian titles were also extinguished by treaty. A territorial governmen fc was formed in 1799, in which year the legislature con- vened for the first time, at Cincinnati, and elected Gen- eral William II. Harrison as delegate to Congress. A state constitution was formed in 1802, by virtue of 58 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OR which, and under authority of Congress, Ohio became an independent member of the federal Union. BOUNDARIES AND EXTENT. Bounded north by the State of Michigan and Lake Erie ; east by the States of Pennsylvania and Virginia, being separated from the latter by the Ohio River ; south by said river, which divides it from Kentucky ; and west by the State of Indiana. The Ohio River washes the border of the state, through its numerous meandcrings, for a distance of over 430 miles. The state contains 40,000 square miles, and measures 200 miles from north to south, by 220 miles from east to west. It lies between 38° 30' and 42° north latitude, and between 80° 35' and 84° 42' west longitude. RIVERS. The Ohio River, which gives name to the state, washes its entire southern border. This river is 1004 miles long from Pittsburg to its mouth, by its various windings, though it is only 614 in a direct line. Its current is gentle, with no falls, excepting at Louisville, Kentucky, where there is a descent of 22i feet in 2 miles, which is obviated by a canal. For about half the year it is navigable for steamboats of a large class through its whole course. The Muskingum, the largest river which flows entirely in this state, is formed by the junction of the Tuscarawas and Walhonding Riv- THE GREAT WEST. 59 ers, and enters the Ohio at Marietta. It is navigable for boats 100 miles. The Scioto, the second river in magnitude, flowing entirely within the state, is about 200 miles long, and enters the Ohio at Portsmouth. Its largest branch is the Whetstone, or Olentangy, which joins it immediately above Columbus. It is nav- igable for boats 130 miles. The Great Miami, a rapid river, in the western part of the state, is 100 miles long, and enters the Ohio in the south-west corner of the state. The Little Miami has a course of 70 miles, and enters the Ohio 7 miles above Cincinnati. The Maumee, 100 miles long, rises in Indiana, runs through the north-west part of the state, and enters Lake Erie at Maumee Bay. It is navigable for steamboats to Perrysburg, 18 miles from the lake, and above the rapids is boatable for a considerable distance. The Sandusky rises in the northern part of the state, and after a course of about 80 miles, enters Sandusky Bay, and thence into Lake Erie. The Cuyahoga rises in the north part of the state, and after a curved course of 60 miles, enters Lake Erie at Cleveland. It has a number of falls, which furnish valuable mill seats. Besides these there are Huron, Vermilion, Black, Grand, and Ashtabula Rivers, which enter Lake Erie. CLIMATE. In general, the climate throughout the state is high- ly favorable to human health. The summer season, though warm, is regular, with the occasional and some- 60 THE GARDEN OP THE WORLD, OR what rare exception of a whirlwind or hurricane. The winters are not severely cold, nor subject to violent storms ; and the intermediate seasons are delightfully pleasant. It is true that in some of the marshy local- ities, giving rise to unwholesome vapors, the inhabit- ants are subject to those peculiar distempers always prevalent in such districts ; but even there, the range of disorders scarcely extends beyond fevers and agues. SURFACE, SOIL, &c. Near the borders of Lake Erie, and for some distance in the interior of the northern part of the state, the surface is generally level, and occasionally somewhat marshy. The section of country hi the vicinity of the Ohio River, in the eastern and south-eastern quarters, is elevated and broken, although there are no lofty mountains in the state. But the entire region is a table land, reaching to a height of 600 to 1000 feet above the ocean level. The most level and fertile lands arc situated in the interior, through which flows the River Scioto. Yast prairies lie near the head waters of that river, of the Muskingum, and the two Miami Rivers, upon which there is no growth of timber, but which yield abundance of coarse grass. The forests, in other parts, produce oaks, walnut, hickory, beech, birch, maple, poplar, sycamore, papaw, cherry, buckeye, and whitewood, in all their varieties. Pines are un- common, and the whitewood is generally substituted. The staple agricultural product of the state is wheat, 61 THE GREAT WEST. of which enormous quantities are annually exported. Rye, oats, buckwheat, Indian corn, and other grains, are raised in great profusion ; and nearly every species of garden vegetable is cultivated successfully. It is estimated that nine tenths of the land is adapted to purposes of agriculture, and that three fourths of it is extraordinarily fertile. Fruits of all descriptions known in the same latitude grow luxuriantly in all parts of the state. AGRICULTURE. In 1857 there were 10,000,000 acres of improved land, and about 9,000,000 acres of unimproved land in farms. The cash value of the farms is about $400,000- 000, and the value of implements and machinery be- longing to the same about $14,000,000. The value of live stock in this state, comprising horses, sheep, swine, oxen, cows, &c., was about $50,000,000. The follow- ing are the statistics of the products of the soil last year: Wheat, 40,000,000 bushels ; rye, 700,000 ; In- dian corn, 73,000,000 ; oats, 14,000,000 ; barley, 500,- 000 ; buckwheat, 800,000 ; peas and beans, 70,000 ; potatoes, 6,000,000 ; sweet potatoes, 200,000. Value of fruit, $800,000. Produce raised by market gardens, $225,000. Butter and cheese, 60,000,000 pounds. Maple sugar, 500,000 pounds. Gallons of molasses, • 200, 000. ^ Wool produced, 11,000,000 pounds. Flax, 500,000 pounds. Hay cut, 2,000,000 tons. Robert Buchanan, of Cincinnati, says that he sold last year, from his vineyard, 140,000 cuttings, and thinks that 6 62 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OR the whole number sold in one season would numbei 2,000,000 cuttings and 800,000 stocks. This looks very much like making the Ohio valley the land of the vine. These immense figures show the extent of op erations, and the enterprise of Ohio farmers. INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. Many important public works have been undertaken and accomplished in this state. The Ohio Canal, 307 miles in length, extends from Cleveland, on the shore of Lake Erie, to Portsmouth, on the Ohio River ; and there are connected with it sundry branches, one of which reaches 50 miles. This work, commenced in 1825 and completed in 1832, cost $5,000,000. The Miami Canal, 178 miles long, extends from Cincinnati, and connects with the Wabash and Erie Canal at Defi- ance. This is also intersected by several branches. The Mahoning, a branch of the Ohio Canal, commences at Akron, and extends 88 miles, to Beaver River. Two continuous lines of railroad extend across the state, from north to south — one from Cincinnati to Sandusky, the other from Cincinnati to Cleveland, which is also connected by railroad with Pittsburg, Buffalo, Sandusky, and Toledo. There are numerous important lines in progress, extending east and west, and, indeed, in al- most every direction. The City Council of Cincinnati passed an ordinance to aid the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad, chiefly by commuting the interest on tho THE GREAT WEST. 63 $600,000 loan, and the rent of the wharf until 1861, on condition that the road shall be finished by Novem- ber, 1857. GOVERNMENT. The constitution provides for the election of a gov- ernor biennially ; but he cannot be elected for more than three terms in succession. Members of the Sen- ate, 36 in number, are elected for two years, one half chosen annually. The House of Representatives is composed of 72 members, elected for one year. All these elections are by the people. The state secretary, treasurer, and auditor are chosen by the legislature, in joint ballot, for three years. The sessions of the Gen- eral Assembly commence annually on the first Monday in December, at Columbus, the capital of the state. White males, 21 years of age, residents for one year in the state, and tax payers, are entitled to the right of suffrage. The constitution has been recently revised and modified ; but its new features do not seem to be essential improvements in principle upon its former provisions. Among the amendments introduced are the following : The House of Representatives to con- sist of 100 members — both branches to be chosen for two years ; the legislature to hold its sessions once in two years ; the lieutenant governor to be acting presi- dent of the Senate, with only a casting vote ; on the passage of every bill, the yeas and nays to be required, and a majDrity of all the members elected, of each 64 THE GARDEN OP THE WORLD, OR house, to he necessary to the passage of any law ; all judicial officers to be elected by the people — the judges of the Supreme and Common Pleas Courts for five years ; no state debts to be contracted to an amount of over 1750,000, except in certain emergencies, nor the state credit to be loaned, nor the state, nor any county, city, or town to hold stock in corporations. EDUCATION. On the admission of this state into the Union, it was stipulated, for certain considerations, that .one thirty- sixth part of all the territory should be set apart for the maintenance of common schools. This liberal res- ervation makes ample provision for securing to coming generation's the advantages of early instruction ; and, thus far, the compact, on the part of the state, has been faithfully carried out. Good schools are diffused all over the land ; and all needful attention and aid are given by the people to their support and improve- ment. There are many thousands of public grammar and primary schools in the state, some hundreds of academies or similar seminaries, and about twenty uni- versities, colleges, and other institutions of a high order. The amount of the school fund owned by the state is nearly 12,000,000 ; and nearly 1300,000 are an nually apportioned to the several counties for school purposes. The number of persons over 20 years of age who can neither read nor write is about 35,000. THE GREAT WEST. 65 RELIGION, &c. There were in the state, in 1850, 551 Baptist church- es, 90 Christian, 100 Congregational, 5 Dutch Reformed, 79 Episcopal, 13 Free, 94 Friends, 71 German Re- formed, 3 Jewish synagogues, 260 Lutheran, 10 Mcn- nonite, 1529 Methodist, 160 Moravian, 663 Presbyterian, 130 Roman Catholic, 2 Swedenborgian, 14 Tunker, 48 Union, 1 Unitarian, 53 Universalist, and 60 other sects, the whole having 3936 churches. Total value of church property, $5,793,099. POPULATION. The people of Ohio are remarkable for industry, en- terprise, and public spirit. They have “ increased and multiplied,” through accessions from the older states, and from Europe, in an almost incredible ratio. The growth of the population has been without parallel, until, perhaps, the recent thronging towards the golden land in the farthest west. From the time when the first census was taken, a period of only 60 years, the number of inhabitants has been augmented from 3000 to over 2,000,000. The principal places are Cincinnati, the metropolis ; Columbus, the capital ; Cleveland, Sandusky, Dayton, Springfield, Zanesville, Marietta, and Portsmouth. There were in February, 1857, 68 banks, with a paid capital of $8,718,366 ; in February, 1857, 46 railroads, of which 2367 miles of track were 6 * 66 THE GARDEN OP THE WORLD, OR finished and in operation, and 1578 in course of con- struction. Tonnage of the state, 26,000. CINCINNATI. the metropolis of Ohio, capital of Hamilton county, and the largest and most commercial place west of the Alleghany Mountains . It is situated on the right bank of the Ohio River, 455 miles below Pittsburg, and 1548 above New Orleans, and 502 miles from Washing- ton. It is the largest city of the Mississippi valley north of New Orleans, and the fifth in population in the United States. Population in 1800, 750 ; in 1810, 2540 ; in 1830, 24,831 ; in 1840, 46,338 ; in 1845, 65,000 ; 1850, 115,438 ; in 1853, 160,141 ; and in 1857, about 200,000. The suburbs have 25,000 in- habitants additional. This city is near the eastern extremity of a valley, about twelve miles in circumference, surrounded by a series of hills, which rise to the height of three hundred feet by gentle and varying slopes, and are partly covered with the native forest trees. From the summit of these hills is presented a beautiful and pic- turesque view of the city and valley. It is built on two table lands, the one elevated from forty to sixty feet above the other. Low-water mark in the river, which is 108 feet below the upper part of the city, is 432 feet above tide water at Albany, and 133 feet below the level of Lake Erie. Covington and New- nort, opposite, in Kentucky, and Fulton and the • THE GEEAT WEST. 67 aijacent parts of Mill Creek township on the north, are but suburbs of Cincinnati, and, if added to the above population, would extend it to 185,000. The shore of the Ohio at the landing is substantially paved to low water mark, and is supplied with floating wharves, adapted to the great rise and fall of the river, which renders the landing and shipping of goods at all times convenient. Cincinnati is laid out with great regularity. North of Main Street, between the north side of Front Street and the bank of the river, is the landing, an open area of ten acres, with about 1000 feet front. This area is of great importance to the business of the city, and from surise to sunset presents a scene of much activity. The central part is compactly and well built, with spacious warehouses, large stores, and handsome dwell- ings ; and many of them are of stone or brick ; and of those recently erected, a very large number are of a beautiful kind of stone : the style of architecture is constantly improving. The streets are well paved, ex- tensively shaded with trees, and many of the houses surrounded with shrubbery. The climate is more variable than on the Atlantic coast in the same latitude. Snow rarely falls sufficiently deep, or lies long enough, to furnish sleighing. Few places are more healthy. The inhabitants are from every state m the Union, and from various countries in Europe. The Ohio River at Cincinnati is 1800 feet, or about one third of a mile wide, and its mean annual range from low to high water is about fifty feet ; the ex- 68 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OR treme rai.ge may be about ten feet more. The greatest depressions are generally in August, September, and October, and the greatest rise in December, March, May, and June. The upward navigation is in winter very rarely suspended by floating ice, and in some winters not at all. Its current at its mean height is about three miles an hour ; when higher or rising it is more, and when very low it does not exceed two miles. The quantity of rain and snow which falls annually at Cincinnati is near three feet nine inches. The average number of clear and fair days in the year is 146 ; of variable, 114 ; of cloudy, 105. Among the public buildings is the new Court House and city hall ; the Cincinnati observatory ; the first and second Presbyterian churches are beautiful edifices, and the Unitarian church is singularly neat. There are several churches, built within the last three years, which possess great beauty, either internally or ex- ternally. But the most impressive building is the Catholic cathedral, which surpasses in beauty and picturesque effect the metropolitan edifice at Balti- more. There are many fine blocks of stores, on Front, Walnut, Pearl, Main, and Fourth Streets, and the eye is arrested by many beautiful private habitations. The most showy quarters are Main Street, Broadway, Pearl, and Fourth Street. There are over one hundred churches in Cincinnati, viz. : 7 Baptist, 1 Bethel, 4 Congregational, 5 Disci- ples, 5 Episcopal, 2 Friends, (Hicksite and Orthodox,) 4 Jews’ synagogues, 12 Lutheran, 22 Methodist, 10 THE GREAT WEST. 6b Presbyterian, 13 Roman Catholic, 1 Second Advent, 1 Unitarian, 1 Unitarian Baptist, 2 Universalist, Ac. There are sis market houses and three theatres, of $ 8 - which one is German. The city contains many literary and charitable insti- tutions. The Cincinnati college was founded in 1819. The building is in the centre of the city, and is the most beautiful edifice of the kind in the state. It is of the Grecian Doric order, with pilaster fronts, and facade of Dayton marble, and cost about $35,000. The law department only, now in operation, has a faculty composed of* three professors, and the course of instruction embraces a period of eight months, viz., from 23d September to 1st June. Woodward Col- lege, named from its founder, who gave a valuable block of ground in the north part of the city, has a president and five professors or other instructors, and, including its preparatory department, near 200 stu dents. The Fairmont Theological Seminary, under direction of the Baptists, (building not yet finished.) The Cincinnati Theological Seminary, Old School Presbyterian, was organized in 1850. St. Xavier’s College, under the direction of the Roman Catho- lics, has a president, eight professors, 100 students, and near 5000 volumes in its libraries. Lane Seminary, a theological institution, is at Walnut Hills, two miles from the centre of the city. It went into operation in 1833 ; lias a president, 3 professors, 75 students, and over 13,000 volumes in its libraries. There is no chaige for tuition. Rooms are provided and furnished 70 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OR at |5 per annum, and the students boarded at 62^ to 90 cents per week. The Medical College was char- tered and placed under trustees in 1825. It has a large and commodious building, recently erected, in the Collegiate Gothic style, a library of over 2000 volumes, 7 professors, and about 150 students. The Wesleyan Female College, established in 1844, has 37 pupils. The Mechanics’ Institute, chartered in 1828, has a valuable philosophical and chemical apparatus, a library, and a reading room. The free schools of the city are of a high order, with competent teachers, fine buildings, and apparatus. In the colleges and high schools there are not less than 1500 pupils ; in the common and private, 20,000 ; making an aggregate of 22,000 persons in the various departments of education. In 1831 a college of teachers was established, having for its object the elevation of the profession, and the advancement of the interest of schools in the Missis- sippi valley, which holds an annual meeting in Cincin- nati in October. The young men’s Mercantile Library Association has a fine library and reading rooms. The library contains over 13,000 volumes, and the institu- tion is unsurpassed in the United States. The library and reading rooms are connected in one vast room, 18 feet high, 140 long, and 60 broad. The Apprentices’ Library, founded in 1821, contains about 5000 volumes. The charitable institutions of the city are highly respectable. The Cincinnati Orphan Asylum is in a building which cost $18,000. Attached is a library THE GREAT WEST. 71 and well-organized school, with a provision even for infants, and it is supported by ample grounds. The Catholics have one male and female Orphan Asylum. The Commercial Hospital and Lunatic Asylum of Ohio was incorporated in 1821. The edifice is in the north- west part of the city, and will accommodate 250 per- sons. A part of the building is used for a poorhouse, and there are separate apartments for the insane. The city is supplied with water raised from the Ohio River by steam power, capable of forcing into the reservoir 5,000,000 gallons of water each twelve hours. The reservoir is on elevated ground, (about 400 feet above the Ohio ;) its entire length is 368 feet ; width, 135 feet ; and 23 feet deep ; estimated to contain 5,000,000 gallons of water. Cost, $796,000, and is the property of the city. The city is lighted with gas, supplied by the Cincinnati Gas Light and Coke Com- pany. Capital, $100,000. Cincinnati is an extensive manufacturing place. Its natural destitution of water power is extensively com- pensated at present by steam engines, and by the surplus water of the Miami Canal and the White Water Canal, which extend 25 miles, and connect with the White Water Canal of Indiana, half a mile south of Harrison, on the state line. The manufac- tures of the city, already enormous, may be expected to greatly increase. It appears that the manufactures of Cincinnati of all kinds, according to the census of 1850, employed a capital of $6,833,796, and produced articles valued at $19,685,022. These amounts, ac- 72 THE GARDEN OP THE WORLD, OR cording to Cist, should be more than doubled to express the capital actually employed, and the value of articles produced. Wine, from the Catawba grape, is exten sivcly made from the produce of the numerous vineyards in the vicinity. There are 10 daily, 1 tri-weekly, and 21 weekly newspapers, and 6 semi-monthly, 24 monthly, and 2 quarterly publications printed in the city. The site on which the Cincinnati observatory is erected is one of great beauty. The building crowns a hill which rises some 500 feet above the line of low water of the Ohio, and commands a varied and picturesque view. The main building is built of stone, 80 feet front, two stories and a half on the wings, and three in the centre. Through the centre of the main building, and founded on the natural rock, rises a pier of grouted masonry eight feet square, entirely insulated from the floors through which it passes, to furnish a permanent and immovable basis for the great equatorial telescope, one of the largest in the world, made at the Frauenhofer Institute, Munich. The focal length is about 17 i feet ; the diameter of the object glass, 12 inches ; bearing magnifying powers varying from 100 to 1400 times. Clockwork is attached to the telescope, and its machinery and circles, by which its mass, weigh- ing some 2500 lbs., is moved with such admirable accu- racy that an object under examination may be followed by the telescope at the will of the observer. It is mounted on a stone pedestal, and rises, when directed to the zenith, some 20 feet above the floor of the THE GREAT WEST. 73 rooms. The apartment is surmounted by a roof of peculiar structure, and so arranged that a portion of the vertical wall and roof, strongly framed together, and mounted on wheels on a circular track, may, by a single person, be moved either north or south, when the entire heaven falls within the sweep of the tele- scope. On the floor below, in the transit room, is the transit telescope, and connected with it is an admirable sidereal clock, and also the machinery invented by Professor Mitchel ; this mechanism consists of two in- struments of entirely different construction, the one intended to record the observations of right ascension, the other observations of difference in declination. By means of the electro-magnet, the clock is made to record its own beats with surprising nicety, on a disk, revolving with uniform velocity on a vertical axis. This disk, covered with paper or metal, receives a minute dot, struck into it by a stylus, driven by a magnet, whose operating electric circuit is closed at each alter- nate beat, by a delicate vibrating wire attached to the pendulum of the clock by a spider’s web ; thus, at each alternate vibration of the pendulum, the circuit is closed ; and the second is entered, magnetically, on the revolv- ing disk. At the close of each revolution, the disk moves itself forward about the tenth of an inch, without check or interference with the uniformity of its angu- lar motion, and a new circumference of time dots commences to be recorded. On the time scale thus perpetually forming the observer can enter, magneti- cally, by the touch oi a key, the observed transit of 7 n THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OR any star or other object across the meridian wires ol the telescope. These entries are subsequently read from the disk, even to the thousandth of one second of time. The trade of Cincinnati embraces the country from the Ohio to the lakes on the north, and from the Scioto to the Wabash east and west. The country bordering the Ohio Biver in Kentucky, for fifty miles down, and as far up as the Virginia line, obtain their supplies here. Its manufactures are sent into the Upper and Lower Mississippi country. There are 6 incorporated banks, with aggregate capital of 15,800,000, besides 10 unincorporated banks ; 8 fire insurance companies, 3 life insurance companies, and 1 live stock insurance company. Cincinnati is the greatest pork market in the world. The pork, bacon, lard, lard oil, star candles, soap, bristles, Ac., amount in value to about 10 millions of dollars annually. Im- ports, year ending August 31, 1853, 151,230,644. Exports, same year, 136,266,108. Tonnage of the port, 1853, 10,191. There were 25 steamboats and 3 barges built in 1853, with an aggregate tonnage of 10,252 tons. The total arrivals of steamboats for the year 1853 was 3630, and the departures 4113. Cincinnati enjoys great facilities for communication with the surrounding country. Two trunk-lines of railroads enter the city, viz., Little Miami and the Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton. From each of these diverge numerous branches. Two other trunk- lines are constructing, viz., the Dayton Air Line and the Ohio and Mississippi, which is to extend to St. THE GREAT WEST. 75 Louis. From Covington, on the Kentucky side of Ohio, a railroad is constructed to the heart of Ken- tucky. The city is divided into 16 wards, and is governed by a mayor, and a board of trustees of three members for each ward, styled the city council. The mayor is elected biennially, and the trustees annually. Cincinnati was founded in 1789, by emigrants from New England and New Jersey, on the site of Fort Washington. It has grown with great rapidity, and being the great emporium of the centre , it must con- tinue to increase with a ratio unprecedented. CLEVELAND. City and port of entry and court house Cuyahoga county. On Lake Erie, at the mouth of Cuyahoga River. It derives its name from General Moses Cleve- land, an agent of the Connecticut land company, who accompanied the first surveying party to the Connecti- cut Reserve, and under whose direction the town was first surveyed in 1796. The Indian title to the land it occupies had been extinguished two years before ; but on the opposite side of the Cuyahoga River the Indians retained their title till 1805. Cleveland was incorpo- rated as a village in 1814, and as a city in 1836. Pop- ulation in 1799, one family ; in 1825, about 500 ; in 1830, 1000 ; in 1840, 6071 ; in 1850, 17,054; in 1857, about 35,000. It is 130 miles north-west from Pitts- 76 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OR burg, 146 north-east from Columbus, 200 south-west from Buffalo, 130 east from Detroit. It is situated on a gravelly plain, elevated about 80 feet above the lake, of which it has a commanding prospect. The streets, which cross each other at right angles, are 80 feet wide, and Main Street 120. The location is dry and healthy, and there are many fine buildings. Near the centre is a public square of 10 acres, neatly enclosed and shaded with trees. x The harbor at the mouth of the Cuyahoga, since its improvement, by piers on each side extending into the water, is one of the best on Lake Erie, and its position at the northern terminus of the Ohio Canal, and the fertile country and enterprising population by which it is surrounded, have given it a very rapid growth, which as yet is but just commencing. It is already the second commercial town in Ohio, and bids fair even to rival Cincinnati. Besides its in- tercourse with the interior of the state by the Ohio Canal, and its extensive lake commerce, it communi- cates by the Ohio and Pennsylvania Canal with Pitts- burg, and by the New York and Welland Canals with the Atlantic coast. To these facilities for transportation have lately been added a system of railroads, affording communication with Cincinnati, Detroit, Pittsburg, and Buffalo, and through these two latter places with Phil- adelphia, New York, and Boston. Ohio City, on the opposite side of the Cuyahoga, is a growing suburb. THE GREAT WEST. 77 COLUMBUS. City, capital of the state, and seat of justice of Franklin county. 140 miles south-west from Cleve- land, and 125 north-east from Cincinnati. It is on the same parallel of latitude with Philadelphia, 450 miles wes#, and on the same meridian with Detroit, 175 miles south. Population in 1815, 700 ; in 1820, 1450 ; in 1830, 2437 ; in 1840, 6048 ; in 1850, 17,871 ; in 1857, 40,000. It is situated on the east bank of the Scioto, upon ground rising gradually from the river, and affording an eligible site for a large city. This spot was selected by the legislature as the seat of gov- ernment in 1812, while it was yet a wilderness, and is designated in the act as ■“ the high bank of Scioto River, opposite Franklinton.” It is laid out, as all towns established in such a manner are usually laid out, with the most entire regularity ; the streets cross- ing each other at right angles, and forming spacious squares, which are often divided into lesser squares by alleys, or narrower streets, intersecting each other in the middle. Broad Street, which extends from the bridge, over which the national road passes the Scioto, to the eastern limits of the city, is 120 feet wide, and High Street, at right angles with this, which is the principal seat of business, is 100 feet wide. The other streets are 88 feet in width. A substantial quay has been constructed along the margin of the river, 1300 feet long, which affords every facility for loading and unloading goods, produce, and other articles transport- 78 THE GARDEN OP THE WORLD, OR ed upon the river ; or through the Ohio Canal, which passes 11 miles south of this point, and is connected with the Scioto at Columbus by a canal, or feeder, of that length. In the centre of the town is a public square of 10 acres, handsomely enclosed, designed originally for tl^e public buildings. It has Broad Street on the ftortli side, and High Street on the west. Upon the south- west corner of this square, fronting towards the west, stands the State House, which is a brick edifice, 75 feet long by 50 feet wide, two stories high, and surmounted with a handsome cupola, from the balcony of which a beautiful view of the city and the surrounding country is obtained. The winding course of the river, the pleasant town of Franklinton, on its opposite bank, and many features of the more distant prospect, give a varied and pleasing interest to this view. The Repre- sentatives’ Hall is on the lower floor of the State House, and the Senate Chamber is immediately above. The public offices are in a separate building, 100 feet long by 25 feet wide, standing directly north of the State House. In the same line, a little farther north, is the Court House for the United States District Court. There are many elegant private dwellings in Colum- bus ; but the general style of building is characterized rather by neatness than display. The churches of the different denominations are numerous, and many of them well sustained. The First Presbyterian Church in Columbus was organized in 1818, and their neat brick edifice stands near the south-east corner of the THE GREAT WEST. 79 public square. The Baptist Church is a large and handsome building at the corner of Third and Rich Streets ; and the Episcopal Church is a stone edifice on Broad Street, opposite the public square. The several state institutions located at Columbus do honor to the state, while they greatly adorn the city. The Ohio Lunatic Asylum occupies an open area, about one mile east -of the State House, and is a truly noble structure. The buildings present a front of 876 feet, with wings on the right and left projecting 11 feet for- ward, and running back 218 feet, thus forming a spa- cious court in the rear. They cover an acre of ground, and contain 440 rooms. About 30 acres of land are attached to the establishment, forming a quiet and ample retreat for such patients as are able to enjoy it. The cost of erecting the buildings of the Lunatic Asy- lum was over $150,000. The Ohio Deaf and Dumb Asylum is located about one third of a mile east of the State House, on grounds which are handsomely laid out, and adorned with shrub- bery. Its site was selected in 1829, and it went into operation as soon as the necessary arrangements could be made. The buildings are of brick, and cost, with the grounds, about $25,000. The Ohio Institution for the Education of the Blind is another of these noble institutions, located at Colum- bus. It is situated on the national road, about three quarters of a mile easterly from the State House. The edifice is a large and handsome structure of brick, with 80 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OR • a beautiful lawn in front. The institution was estab- lished in 1837, and is in a flourishing condition. The state penitentiary, which is situated on the east- ern bank of the Scioto, about half a mile north from the State House, is the largest and most imposing of the public edifices at Columbus. The main building is constructed of hewn limestone, and consists of a centre building, 56 feet front, and four stories high, with two. wings each, 200 feet long, and three stories high ; pre- senting an entire front of 456 feet in extent. With the prison yard in the rear, upon the three sides of which are the long ranges of workshops for the prisoners, the buildings of the penitentiary enclose a hollow square of 6 acres. The centre building of the main edifice, as seen in front, contains the house of the warden, the office, and the guard rooms ; and each of the wings contains 350 cells for prisoners, arranged in 5 tiers, and exposed through the whole line to the observation of the officers from the guard rooms. A railroad, about two miles long, has been laid down from the prison to a stone quarry, where a portion of the convicts are employed in getting out stone. The discipline of this prison is excellent. The prisoners attend divine ser- vice on the Sabbath, and enjoy the privileges of a Sab- bath school, and the use of an excellent library, com- prising several hundred volumes. They have Bibles in their cells, unite in exercises of sacred music, and are permitted, occasionally, to hear temperance addresses, &c., in the chapel. Their labor yields to the state, THE GREAT WEST. 81 after defraying the expenses of the prison, a surplus of 116,000 or $18,000 annually. On the 10th of February, 1816, Columbus was in- corporated as a borough. Its present city charter was granted March 3, 1834. The mayor is elected for two years. The city is divided into five wards, each of which elects four members of the city council, who hold their offices for four years, one in each ward being elected annually. All other officers are elected an- nually. A new State House, surpassing in extent and archi- tectural beauty any similar edifice in the Union, was completed and dedicated at Columbus, January, 1857. THE GREAT WEST. 83 The history of the settlement of Indiana is nearly identical with that of its twin sister, Illinois, and of much of the vast surrounding region formerly included in the so called North-west Territory. The first per- manent occupancy of the country was effected in 1702, at a fertile spot on the eastern bank of the Wabash, about one hundred miles above its confluence with the Ohio. To this place, which became a fortified trading post, its inhabitants afterwards gave the name of Vin- cennes. The original settlers were French soldiers from Canada, belonging to the army of Louis XIV. Their descendants remained an almost isolated com- munity, increasing very slowly in numbers for nearly one hundred years ; and in the mean time, from, habits of constant intercourse with their Indian neighbors exclusively, with whom they often intermarried, had imbibed a taste for savage life,' and had consequently retrogressed in the march of civilization. By the treaty of peace between France and England, in 1763, the ter- ritory became subject to the latter, from which power, however, it was wrested by the Americans during the revolutionary war. From the close of that struggle, in 1783, until General Wayne’s treaty in 1795, and again just before the commencement of the second war with Great Britain, the people, generally residing in hamlets and villages remote from each other, were ter- 84 THE GARDEN OP THE WORLD, OR ribly harrassed by the incursions of the Indians, who committed the most cruel atrocities. These merciless barbarians were at length effectually conquered and humbled by the United States military forces under General Harrison ; a season of quietude and prosperity immediately ensued, and a vast tide of emigration has been flowing into the state since the peace of 1815. Indiana was originally embraced in the territory north- west of the Ohio, and so remained until the year 1800. It was then, including the present State of Illinois, newly organized under the name of Indiana Territory. In 1809 it was divided into two territories, Illinois having been set off, and became an independent state in 1816. BOUNDARIES AND EXTENT. The state is bounded north by Michigan and*the southern portion of the lake of that name ; east by the State of Ohio ; south-east and south by Ohio River, which divides it from Kentucky ; and west by Illinois, the Wabash River forming part of the boundary. It lies between 37° 47' and 41° 50' north latitude, and its mean length is estimated at 260 miles ; its mean breadth is about 140 miles, extending from 84° 45' to 88° west longitude. Its area comprehends nearly 34,000 square miles. RIVERS. The Ohio River washes the entire southern border of this state and furnishes great facilities for trade. THE GREAT WEST. 85 The Wabash is the largest river in the state, being 500 miles in length. It rises in Ohio, and passes westward- ly and south-westwardly through the state, forming its western boundary for a distance of 120 miles. It is navigable for steamboats to La Fayette, 800 miles, a part of the year. White River, 200 miles long, is its largest branch, and is navigable on its west fork for steamboats to Indianapolis in seasons of floods ; it con- sists of an east fork and a west fork, which unite about 30 miles above its junction with the Wabash. The White Water River runs in the eastern part of the state, and enters the Great Miami. Lake Michigan touches this state in the north-west. CLIMATE. Residents of the country characterize the climate as generally mild and salubrious. In summer the tem- perature is genial and uninterrupted by injurious changes. The winters are neither long nor severe, six weeks being considered as their average duration. Frosts, however, are common in spring and autumn. Fevers and agues prevail only in marshy places, and in the neighborhood of stagnant waters. SURFACE AND SOIL. The face of the country, though not mountainous, is in some quarters hilly and broken. The greater portion of the state, by far, consists of immense tracts 8 86 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OP. of level lands, studded at intervals with picturesque clusters of trees. Many of the upland prairies are skirted for long distances with noble forests, while those bordering upon the rivers are rarely productive of any description of timber. The whole earth is replete with vegetable wealth. Upon the prairies there is, at the proper seasons, intermingled with gay and odorous flowers, a thick covering of grass, growing to a height of seven or eight feet. The soil of the prai- ries, as well those which are elevated as those which lie along the rivers, is surpassingly rich, the loam com- monly reaching to a depth of two to five feet. The trees of native growth comprise several varieties of oak, wal- nut, maple, elm, sycamore, beech, ash, linden, locust, sassafras, buckeye, cottonwood, cherry, and mulberry. The most important of the cultivated products are wheat, Indian corn, rye, and other grains, potatoes, and various other esculents. Grapes, and indeed fruits of all kinds peculiar to the climate, grow profusely. Among the many valuable staples of this state are large quantities of beef, pork, butter, cheese, sugar, wool, tobacco, and hemp. AGRICULTURE. There were in this state in 1857 over 6,000,000 acres of land improved, and about 9,000,000 acres unim- proved land in farms. Cash value of the farms, about $150,000,000. Value of implements and machinery attached thereto, $7,000,000. Value of live stock, horses, oxen, cows, &e., $25,000,000. THE GREAT WEST. 87 The wheat crop last year was 15,000,000 bushels. Rye, 149,897. Buckwheat, 200,000. Indian corn, 73.950.000. Oats, about 7,000,000. Barley, about 50.000. Potatoes, over 2,000,000. Sweet potatoes, over 2,000,000. Value of fruit produced, $400,000. Value of produce of market gardens, $75,000. Pounds of butter made, about 14,000. Cheese, about 700,000. Maple sugar, 3,000,000 pounds. Molasses, 200,000 gal- lons. Wool produced, about 3,000,000 pounds. Flax, about 300,000 pounds. Hops, about 100,000 pounds. Tobacco, 1,500,000 pounds. Hay, 413,000 tons. There were made 15,000 gallons of wine, sparkling Catawba, &c. INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. The Wabash and Erie Canal, 187 miles in length, connecting the navigable waters of the River Wabash with those of Lake Erie, is the most important enter prise of the kind in which this state has been con cerned. ’Nearly 100 miles of its extent are in Indiana, and the residue in Ohio. The whole was completed in 1843. The Whitewater Canal, a work of much less magnitude, is partially completed, and several additions are contemplated. A railroad, commencing at Indian- apolis, connects the capital with three or four differ- ent points on the Ohio, a distance of about 100 miles. From the same point of beginning, another road, partly macadamized, extends northwardly to Michigan City. Other railroads have been projected, some of which are hi course of construction. 88 THE GARDEN OP THE WORLD, OR GOVERNMENT. The executive power resides in a governor and lieutenant governor, the latter being president of the Senate, and acting as governor in cases of vacancy. The legislature consists of two branches, — Senate and House of Representatives, — apportioned to the coun- ties according to the number of qualified electors, in such ratio that the number of representatives shall not be less than 36 nor more than 100. The Senate is never to contain less than 12 nor more than 50 members. All the above are elected by the people triennially, except the representatives, who are chosen every year. The legislature convenes annually. The chief magistrate cannot hold office longer than six years in any term of nine years. The secretary of state, treasurer, and auditor are chosen by the General Assembly in joint ballot, the first for a term of four years, and the two latter for three years. EDUCATION. Attention to this important interest has been con- siderably awakened within a few years. A common school fund, to be derived from various sources, was founded by a law of the state in 1849, at which time the several funds set apart for the purpose were valued at upwards of $700,000. By the census of 1840, there were within the state over 38,000 white persons, above the age of 20 years, who could neither read nor write. THE GREAT WEST. 89 Asylums for the blind, the deaf and dumb, and the insane, have been established. There are several col- leges, and numerous academies, in various parts of the state. The names and locations are as follows : In- diana State University at Bloomington, Hanover Col- lege at Hanover, Wabash College at Crawfordsville, Indiana Asbury University at Greencastle, University of Notre Dame at South Bend, Hartsville University at Hartsville, Indiana Theological Seminary at Hano- ver, Ecclesiastical Seminary at Vincennes, Indiana Medical College at Laporte, Indiana Central Medical College at Indianapolis, Indiana State University Law School at Bloomington, and Indiana Asbury University Law School at Greencastle, the whole having, in 1850, 1069 students. There were also 131 academies, 6185 pupils ; 4822 schools, 161,500 scholars ; 151 libraries, aggregate number of volumes 68,403. School fund (productive and unproductive,) $4,998,000. Present available annual revenue, $159,501. There is an in- stitution for the education of the blind at Indianapolis, an institution for the education of the deaf and dumb near Indianapolis, and also a hospital for the insane. The state prison is at Jeffersonville. RELIGIOUS STATISTICS. In modes of faith there is much diversity. The most numerous classes of Christians are Methodists, Presbyterians, and Baptists ; there are also consider- able numbers of Lutherans, Episcopalians, Roman 8 * 90 THE GAEDEN OF THE WOELD, OE Catholics, and Friends. There were in the state, in 1850, 428 Baptist churches, 187 Christian, 2 Congre- gational, 5 Dutch Reformed, 24 Episcopal, 10 Free, 89 Friends, 5 German Reformed, 63 Lutheran, 778 Methodist, 57 Moravian, 282 Presbyterian, 63 Roman Catholic, 5 Timker, 5 Union, 1 Unitarian, 15 Univer- salist, and 13 other sects, the whole having 2032 churches ; total value of church property, 11,529,585. POPULATION. The population of Indiana, since the year 1825, has increased with unexampled rapidity. At that date the number of inhabitants was estimated at 185,000 ; 1850, 988,416 ; 1857, about 1,200,000. Among the causes which have conduced to attract settlers thither, the extraordinary fertility of the soil, the low price of lands, the facilities for inland water communication, and the healthful climate, are doubtless among the most prominent. INDIANAPOLIS. Capital of the State of Indiana, and seat of justice for Marion county. It is situated very near the geo- graphical centre of the state, on the east side of the west fork of White River, which is navigable, except at low water, for steamboats from the Ohio and Wabash Rivers to this place. The ground on which it is built, together with the sul) urbs, embracing, all together, four THE GREAT WEST. 91 sections of land, according to tire government surveys, was secured to the State of Indiana by a compact with the United States, in 1820, when it was covered with a dense forest, as a permanent seat of government. In the spring of 1821 the town was laid out and surveyed by commissioners appointed for that purpose. The original plat of the town, which is on an extended plain, was a mile square ; but it has since been extend- ed in different directions beyond these limits. It was laid out into regular four-acre squares, each to contain 12 lots ; and these squares were divided through the middle by alleys, from east to west, 80 feet wide, and from north to south 15 feet wide. The streets, in gen- eral, were laid out 90 feet in width. Washington Street, which passes through the centre, and is the great business street, is 120 feet in width. Through this street the great national road passes. Near the centre of the town a square has been appropriated, as a site for the mansion of the governor of the state. In the centre of this square stands the Governor’s House, on ground slightly elevated, 60 feet square, and having four elegant fronts/ A circular street, 80 feet wide, encompasses this enclosure, and four streets extend from it diagonally, towards the four corners of the city. The streets, with the exception of these four, all intersect each other at right angles. They bear the names of the different states of the Union. The State House at Indianapolis is beautifully lo- cated, in the centre of one of the 40 acre squares, handsomely laid out and enclosed. It is one of the 92 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OR most splendid buildings in the west. It is 180 feet long, 80 feet wide, and 40 feet high, to the top of the cornice, and is surmounted with a handsome dome. It is on the model of the Parthenon at Athens, with the omission of the columns on the sides ; for which pilasters, 13 in number, are substituted. On each front there is a beautiful portico, with 10 Doric col- umns. The two halls for the legislature are in the second story, to which the entrance is through a hall and rotunda in the centre. The Court House, which was formerly occupied as the State House, is also a handsome building. Some of the church edifices are large and of fine appearance. Indianapolis is the centre of a number of stage routes from different sections of the west, and is fast becoming a place of extensive business. It is connect- ed by railroad with Madison, on the Ohio River, a dis- tance of 86 miles ; being by this route about 150 miles from Cincinnati, and about the same distance from Louisville, Kentucky. The railroad will soon be com- pleted to connect it whh Peru, on the Wabash and Erie Canal. Population, K50, 8091 ; in 185T, 14,000. NEW ALBANY. City, and seat of justice of Floyd County. 126 miles south by east from Indianapolis. Situated on the north bank of the Ohio River, about two miles be- low the foot of the falls in that river, at Louisville, rhis is one of the largest places in the state. It is laid THE GEE AT WEST. 93 out with entire regularity, having six streets parallel with the river, nearly east and west, and eleven run- ning hack from the river, intersecting them at right angles. It has churches of the Presbyterian, Episco- pal, Methodist, Baptist, Campbellite Baptist, and Ro- man Catholic denominations. There are a male and a female seminary, a lyceum, and other excellent pro- visions for the education of the young. A donation of $5000 was made by the original proprietors to con- stitute a fund for the support of a public school. There are several ship yards at New Albany, in which a num- ber of steamboats are built annually, and a large business is done in various branches of manufacture. Population in 1840, 4226 ; hi 1850, 10,000 ; in 1857, 15,000. THE GREAT WEST. 95 ILLINOIS. This comparatively young member of 1 he American Union was, nevertheless, partially settled, by civilized adventurers, as early as the year 1673. A party of enterprising Frenchmen from Canada accompanied M. l)e la Salle in his second exploration of the country, in the above year, when in search of the River Mississippi, and founded the villages of Kaskaskias and Cahokia. These settlements continued to flourish for some years ; but the people, by constant intercourse with the sur- rounding savages, gradually reduced themselves to a semi-barbarous condition, and for a long period their numbers were but little augmented by immigration. By the treaty of peace between the French and Eng- lish, in 1763, the Illinois country, together with Canada, was ceded by the former to the latter, who took formal possession two years afterwards. It remained in their hands, under several successive military governors, until 1778 ; in which year a body of Virginia troops, commanded by General Clarke, penetrated the country, and subdued all the fortified places. In the same year, a county called Illinois was organized by the legislature, and placed under the care of a deputy governor. The country had been considered, hitherto, as a part of the territory included in the charter of Virginia ; and the claim founded thereon was recognized by the treaty of 96 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OR 1783. Viginia, however, ceded it to the United States, four years afterwards, when it constituted a section of the “ Not 1 tli-west Territory,” so called. In 1800, it received a separate organization and a territorial gov- ernment, in conjunction with, and under the name of, Indiana. Another division took place in 1809, when the distinct Territories of Indiana and Illinois were formed ; both of which were subsequently admitted into the Union as independent states — the former in 1816, and the latter in 1818. The name of the state is derived from that of its great central river — an ab- original appellation, signifying the Paver of Men. BOUNDARIES AND EXTENT. The state is bounded north by Wisconsin ; east by the southern portion of Lake Michigan, by the State of Indiana, and by the Ohio River, dividing it from Kentucky also on the south ; and west by the Missis- sippi, which separates it from the States of Missouri and Iowa. Its extreme length is some 380 miles, ex- tending from 37° to 42i° north latitude. Its breadth varies from about 145 to 220 miles, being widest in the centre, and narrowest at the northern and southern points. Its utmost reach of longitude is 4 degrees, viz., from 87° to 91°, west from Greenwich. Its area is computed at 55,400 square miles, of which near 50,000 are believed to be well adapted to agricultural purposes. THE GREAT WEST. 97 RIVERS, The Illinois is the largest river in the state. Fox and Des Plaines Rivers, its two largest branches from the north, rise in Wisconsin, and with the Kankakee. River from Indiana, form the Illinois, which, after a course of 400 miles, enters the Mississippi twenty miles above the Missouri. It is navigable a distance of about 250 miles. Rock River rises in Wisconsin, and after a course of 800 miles, mostly in Illinois, empties into the Mississippi. The Kaskaskia rises near the middle of the state, and after a south-westerly course of 250 miles, enters the Mississippi 63 miles below the Mis- souri. It is navigable for boats 150 miles. The Wa- bash forms a part of the east boundary. The Little Wabash, after a course of 130 miles, enters the Wabash a little above its junction with the Ohio. Peoria Lake, through which the Illinois River flows, about 150 miles from its mouth, is a beautiful sheet of water twenty miles long and two broad. CLIMATE. In general, the climate of Illinois, in its influence upon health, does not differ materially from that of the other states, lying Within the same parallels, east of the Alleghany ridge. It furthermore enjoys the ad- vantage of exemption from annoying easterly winds, although the prairie breezes are often severely cold. The temperature, ordinarily, is much like that of Ohio 9 98 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OR and Michigan during the respective seasons. The length of the winter is usually somewhat less than three months. Snow seldom falls to a great depth, or continues upon the earth many days in succession ; and the ground is commonly free from frost throughout half the winter. The early spring months are rainy and unpleasant ; but they are soon succeeded by a milder season, a warm and cheering summer, with an invigorating atmosphere ; and, finally, “ the year is crowned ” by a delightful autumn of some months’ duration, rarely disturbed by a cloudy day or a stormy hour. SURFACE, SOIL, &c. There are no lofty mountains in this state, although at its northern and southern extremes the land is con- siderably elevated, and occasionally broken. In gen- eral, the surface is level, or slightly undulating, about two thirds of the whole consisting of immense prairies, clothed luxuriantly with grass, herbage, delicious straw- berries, and other wild berries, and resplendent with myriads of indigenous flowers, flourishing in all the beauty of “ nature unadorned.” No impenetrable forests encumber these vast tracts, although isolated patches of woodland, some of them covering many acres, are frequently found in • their midst. In some quarters of the state timber is sufficiently abundant ; in others there is a deficiency. The most common de- scriptions are the oak, hickory, maple, elm, ash, locust, beech, poplar, sycamore, and various other woods. The THE GREAT WEST. 99 soil is almost invariably fertile, often of the finest and richest quality, to a great depth. The products of the earth are of corresponding value and amount. Every variety of grain, and of edible vegetables, together with hemp, flax, cotton, and tobacco, are cultivated with ex- traordinary success. All the fruits common to the temperate latitudes are produced in abundance : grapes, especially, natives of the soil, are remarkably plentiful in most parts of the state, and of fine quality, capable of yielding excellent wines. The fecundity of the land, and the generous returns with which it rewards even the moderate labors of the husbandman, may be inferred from the fact that in almost all parts of the state an average crop, per acre, can he obtained, of fifty bushels of Indian corn — one of its important staples ; and instances are frequent where the product reaches 75 or a 100 bushels. AGRICULTURE. There were in this state, in 1857, 6,000,000 acres ot land improved, and 7,000,000 acres of land unim- proved in farms. Cash value of the farms over $100,- 000,000. Value of live stock, horses, cows, oxen, - nue in 1855 for water rents, $70,181 92 ; total cost of waterworks up to Decelhber, 1855, $650,000. The present reservoir is altogether inadequate for the city, it being only sufficient to hold water for one night, and it takes 14 hours to pump into the tank sufficient to last the remaining 10 hours. The commissioners are now discussing the expediency of erecting a new one, whose capacity is estimated at 7,000,000 gallons, while the present one contains only 500,000. It is to cover an area of 275 square feet ; the height from the bottom of the foundation to the top of the basin to be 100 feet ; depth of basin, 23 feet. The walls of the basin are to be 20 feet thick at the bottom, and ten feet at the top. Cost, $275,000. The report states that the revenue for water taxes this year will amount to $100,000. The Chicago Gas Light and Coke Company manu- facture an exceedingly clear and bright light, which for brilliancy cannot be excelled. They have just com- pleted a new Retort House, at an expense of $22,240. 10 110 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD. The amount of stock issued amounts to $356,900, helu by 78 stockholders. The funded debt is $70,000, in bonds, bearing interest at the rate of 7 per cent, per annum. The following table shows the progress made by the company : — Date. Consumers. Burners. Street lamps. Miles ; 1850 198 1447 112 5 1851 327 3055 146 7 1852 540 4794 164 7 1853 840 7522 209 13 1854 1398 12,398 380 20 1857 1964 18,760 " 476 23 Up to the present time the total outlay is $227,361. The official statistics of the loss of property on the lakes, just compiled, prove them to be enormous. Total loss in 1855, $2,821,529 ; total loss in 1854, $2,187,825 ; increase in 1855, $688,704. Total loss of life in 1855, 119. 603 disasters occurred to vessels ; and 33 schooners, 1 tug, 6 barks, 6 brigs, 3 steamers, making a total of 58, have gone down in the dark, deep waters during the last year. 112 TIIE GARDEN OP THE WORLD, OR MICHIGAN. This is one of those members of the American Union which were formerly comprised in the “ North- west Territory.” In the year 1640, it was partially explored by a few French traders from Canada ; and the first settlement was formed at Detroit in 1670. By the peace between France and England, in 1763, the latter obtained possession of the territory, and, at the termination of the revolutionary war, ceded it to the United States, retaining control of Detroit, how- ever, until 1796. It was organized as a territory of the United States in 1805 ; but, in the course of the war of 1812, again fell into the hands of- the British, from whom it was recovered, in a short period, by the American forces under General Harrison. In 1836 it was admitted into the Union as an independent state. BOUNDARIES AND EXTENT. Bordered on the northern and eastern fronts by two of the great lakes, and parted near its centre by another, the land surface exhibits two distinct penin- sulas — the base of one lying adjacent to Ohio and Indiana on the south, and that of the other com- mencing at the boundary of Wisconsin on the south- west. The main peninsula, known as Michigan proper, THE GREAT WEST. 113 is bounded north by the waters of Lakes Huron and Michigan ; east by Lakes Huron and St. Clair, and by a portion of Lake Erie, with the intermediate straits or rivers ; south by the States of Ohio and Indiana ; and west by Lake Michigan. The northern or upper peninsula is bounded north by Lake Superior ; east and south-east by Lake Huron and the waters there- with connected ; south by Lake Michigan; and south- west by the Menomonee and Montreal Rivers, which separate it from Wisconsin. The southern peninsula is 282 miles long, with an average breadth of 140 ; the length of the northern is 324 miles, and its mean width 60. The whole area of the state, including some 36,300 square miles of water surface, comprises about 92,500 square miles. Its geographical position is be- tween 41° 30 / and 47° 20' north latitude, and extends from 82° 25' to 90° 30' west longitude. ItIVERS AjS t D LAKES. The rivers of Michigan are in general comparatively smaller, but more numerous, having in the lower pen- insula a greater length from their mouths to where they head than is commonly observed in most other sections of the Union. This latter circumstance may, perhaps, be attributed not only to the uniformity of descent, but to the more favorable structure of the interior to furnish them constant supplies. The De- troit, St. Clair, and St. Mary’s are more properly called straits, and not rivers. They are tranquil, deep, copi- 10 * 114 THE GARDEN OP THE WORLD, OR ous, and expansive streams, uniting the great lakes, the waters of which they conduct towards the ocean. The largest rivers of the lower peninsula are the Grand, Maskegon, St. Joseph, and Kalamazoo, which flow into Lake Michigan ; the Cheboygan and Thunder Bay Rivers, that discharge into Lake Huron, and the Sagi- naw into Saginaw Bay. The streams flowing eastward are small, owing to the position of the dividing ridge, which is considerably east of the middle of the penin- sula; the largest are the Raisin, Huron, Clinton, and Rouge. The largest rivers of the \ipper peninsula are the Montreal, the Great Iron, the Ontonagon, the Hu- ron, the St. John’s, and the Chocolate, which put into Lake Superior ; and the Menomonee and Manistee, which flow, the former into Green Bay, and the latter into Lake Michigan. There are several other consid- erable streams, though of a smaller grade ; and these, with few exceptions, are lively, pure, and healthy, supplying mill power, and draining the fine agricultural lands through which they course. Michigan is encompassed by five lakes, four of which are the largest collections of fresh water on the globe. These are Lake Superior, Lake Michigan, Lake Huron, Lake St. Clair, and Lake Erie, which are connected by the Straits of Detroit, St. Clair, Michilimackinac, and St. Mary. Of these immense mediterranean waters, Lake Superior is by far the largest. It lies directly north of the upper peninsula, and the greater part of its southern coast is bordered by it. Lake Michigan is the second in size. It is a long, narrow lake, stretch- THE GREAT WEST. 115 ing a little north-eastwardly between the lower penin- sula and the States of Wisconsin and Illinois. The northern part, together with the straits, separate the two peninsulas from each other. Lake Huron is next in dimensions, and is situate on the north-eastern border of Lower Michigan, separating it from Canada West. The shape of this lake is extremely irregular ; its principal indentations are Saginaw Bay, which ex- tends down into the interior, and two others, one im- mediately north of Manito Islands, and the other south-east of them. The latter, sometimes called the the Manito Bay or Georgian Lake, is very large, es- timated at one fourth of Lake Huron. It empties through the Strait St. Clair into St. Clair Lake , the smallest of the five bordering on Michigan ; and this again discharges itself through Detroit Strait into Lake Eric. More than 30 miles of this latter borders Michigan, and opens to the state a free navigation to the principal ports along its coasts — Buffalo, Dunkirk, Erie, Sandusky, &c. Nor is this state merely sur- rounded by lakes, but the interior is interspersed with them from one border to the other. The country in- deed is literally maculated with small lakes of every form and size, from an area of 1 to 1000 acres ; though, as a general rule, they do not, perhaps, average 500 acres in extent. They are sometimes so frequent that several of them may be seen from the same position. They are usually very deep, with gravelly bottoms, waters transparent, and of a cool temperature at all seasons. This latter fact is supposed to be hi conse- 116 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OR quence of springs which furnish them constant sup- plies. Water fowl of various sorts inhabit their shores, and their depths are the domain of abundance of fish, trout, bass, pike, pickerel, dace, perch, catfish, sucker, bullhead, &c., which often grow to an extraordi- nary size. It is usual to find some creek or rivulet originating in these ; but what is a singular fact, and not easily accounted for, many of these bodies of living water have no perceptible outlet, and yet are stored with fish. A lake of this description, with its rich stores of fish and game, forms no unenviable ap- pendage to a farm, and is properly appreciated. But with all its length of lake coast, Michigan can boast of out few good harbors ; yet there are several that afford excellent shelter from the storms that frequently sweep over these great inland seas, and lash them into turmoil. CLIMATE. There is a marked dissimilarity between the climates of the upper and lower peninsulas of Michigan, arising from their different geographical positions. The for- mer is subject to great extremes of heat and cold, to sudden and severe changes, while the latter enjoys a comparatively mild and uniform temperature. Long and cold winters, followed by short and hot summers, are the principal seasons in the upper peninsula ; for the transitions are so rapid as to afford but a brief in- terval of spring or autumn. The contrast between the two portions of the state, in this respect, is owing, THE GREAT WEST. 117 doubtless, to the varied influences of the winds from the lakes. The general adaptation of the climate to human health may be said to equal that of the central portions of Indiana and Illinois. Among the diseases most common are fever and ague, and other maladies originating in malaria. In some seasons, affections of the lungs, of the bowels, the limbs, &c., prevail to greater or less extent, depending upon atmospheric agencies. . The goitre , or swelled neck, is a disease peculiar to the inhabitants residing on the lake shores. SURFACE AND SOIL. Michigan proper presents a diversity of surface. It is mostly either level or slightly swelling, but is occa- sionally rough and hilly, and towards the central points, between the eastern and western shores, is elevated to a height of some 600 to 700 feet, forming- rugged and irregular ridges. On the western side of this range of eminences, the land slopes gently and smoothly towards the lake, but again rises on the coast into steep and broken sand banks and bluffs. The northern half of this peninsula is as yet but sparsely peopled ; and its soil is regarded as inferior to that of the southern portion, although most of the lands in the inte- rior are said to be, in general, well adapted to agricultu- ral purposes. In the settled parts, the soil is quite pro- ductive, and flax, hemp, and all the varieties of grains, garden vegetables, &c., are raised in abundance. The forests yield excellent timber, of almost every descrip- 118 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OR tion known in this climate ; as the oak, walnut, hicko- ry, elm, ash, maple, sycamore, whitewood, hackberry, cottonwood, poplar, butternut, cherry, &c. There are also large tracts of pine, spruce, and hemlock trees in the northerly parts of the state. Of the upper or northern peninsula, no very great amount of knowl- edge has yet been obtained beyond what is, in some degree, connected with the recent geological survey of this region. It is but thinly inhabited by permanent residents, its soil promising but poor remuneration to the cultivator. Mountains, valleys, hills, plains, for- ests, and rivers variegate the surface. The most lofty of the elevations ascend to a height of 2000 feet ; some of the forests embrace millions of acres of pines and other evergreens ; and a hundred rivers, large and small, affording valuable mill sites, flow from the up- lands into the lakes, on either side of the Porcupine Mountains, the grand ridge which towers as a sort of dividing barrier between Lakes Superior and Michigan. AGRICULTURE. There were in this state in 1857 over 2,000,000 acres of improved land, and 2,500,000 acres unimproved land. Cash value of the farms, 160,000,000. Value of the implements and machinery attached thereto, 8,000,000. Value of live stock, horses, oxen, and other cattle, 18,110,000. The wheat crop last year was 9,000,000 bushels , rye, 115,800 ; Indian corn, 8,000,000 ; oats, 3,000,000 ; THE GREAT WEST. 119 barley, 100,000 ; buckwheat, 600,000 ; peas and beans, 100,000 ; potatoes, 3,000,000 ; sweet potatoes, 1400 bushels ; products of the orchard, 1150,000 ; products of the market gardens, $17,000 ; pounds of butter made, 8,000,000 ; pounds of cheese, 1,100,000 ; maple sugar, 2,800,000 pounds ; molasses, 22,000 gallons ; flax, 8000 pounds; tobacco, 1275; hay, cut, 413,000 tons. INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. This youthful state has made rapid advances in in- ternal communication, although she has been provided by nature witu an excellent and cheap highway to nearly all her borders, in the inland seas which sur- round her. In January, 1853, she had 474 miles of railroad completed, which connect Detroit and Monroe with Chicago, Illinois, and various ulterior towns in Michigan. Detroit is also connected with Pontiac, and Adrian with Toledo, Ohio. A portion of the Southern Railroad leaves Michigan and passes into Indiana, about 40 miles east of Lake Michigan. A contract was entered upon in 1853 for constructing a ship canal round the rapids on St. Mary’s River, to connect Lakes Superior and Huron, which was completed in 1855.. This work, being in operation, must add greatly to the commercial importance of Michigan, and enhance the value of the copper, iron, and lead mines on the shores of Lake Superior. 120 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OR GOVERNMENT. The governor, lieutenant governor, and senators are elected biennially, and the representatives annually, the latter numbering 54, and the Senate consisting of 18. These elections are by the people, who, by a late amendment of the constitution, elect also the judges and cabinet officers. The sessions of the legislature commence annually on the first Monday of January, and the present seat of government is established at Lansing, Ingham county. A residence of only six months in the state, immediately preceding an election, confers the right of voting on all wlfite males who have attained their majority. EDUCATION. On the subject of education, Michigan is largely im- bued with the opinion of New England, (from whence so many of her sons derive their origin,) that republi- can government and common school education must proceed or fall together. Her school fund, in 1852, was $575,668 ; in addition to which is a fund called the University Fund, of $100,000. In 1850, $42,794 were apportioned among the schools, and $81,392 raised by taxation for their support, besides $46,797 raised for buildings, &c. During the same year, 132,234 pupils attended the schools, of whom 125,866 were educated from the public funds. There is a state nor- mal school at Ypsilanti about going into operation, for THE GREAT WEST. 121 the education of teachers, under the control of a board of sis persons appointed by the legislature. The township libraries, in 1850, numbered on their shelves 81,823 volumes. RELIGIOUS STATISTICS. Of the religious denominations the Methodists are the most numerous. Presbyterians, Baptists, Episco- palians, and Roman Catholics constitute the bulk of the remainder. There are, however, a few congrega- tions of Lutherans, Dutch Reformed, Unitarians, Uni- versalists, &c. POPULATION. Michigan, like the other North-western States, is peopled by the representatives of divers lands and races. The natives consist of the descendants of the aborigines, of the first French settlers, and mestizoes, or the offspring of white and Indian progenitors. Among the foreign population are immigrants from Great Britain, Germany, and other European coun- tries ; and there are multitudes of settlers from New England, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Vir- ginia, and Canada. Very few of the African race are found in the state. Population in 1810, 4762 ; in 1820, 8896 ; in 1830, 31,639 ; in 1840, 212,267 ; in 1850, 397,654 ; in 1857, 480,000. 11 122 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OR DETROIT. Court House, Wayne county. City and port of entry. On the west side of Detroit River or Strait, 7 miles below the outlet of Lake St. Clair, and 18 miles above Lake Erie. It is 132 miles east from Lansing, the capital of the state. Population in 1810, 770 ; in 1820, 1442 ; in 1830, 2222 ; in 1840, 9102 ; in 1850, 21,028 ; in 1857, 40,000. The ground on which Detroit is built has a gentle ascent from the river as far hack as to the main street, and thence, westward, it is level. The plan of the city is rectangular, extending along the river more than a mile, and nearly a mile back. The principal street running through the most dense portion of it, parallel with the course of the river, is Jefferson Avenue. Leading from the river, at right angles with this, is Woodward Avenue. These streets are 200 feet wide. There are several streets or avenues, which are 120 feet in width, and the other streets are 60 feet wide, generally crossing each other at right angles. There are sexual public squares, the principal of which are the Campus Martius, in the central part of the city ; and the Grand Circus, in which five of the great avenues meet. The wholesale stores, and the ware- houses -for heavy goods, are mostly located on Atwater Street, on the river, and on Woodbridge Street, between this and Jefferson Avenue. On Jefferson Avenue are located the principal dry goods and fancy stores, with the public and private offices. This is truly an elegant THE GREAT WEST. 123 street, compactly built, and imposing in its appearance. Among the public buildings deserving of particular notice is the building lately occupied as the State House, built of brick, having a handsome Ionic portico, and a dome 140 feet high. The view from the top of this building is at once extensive and beautiful ; em- bracing, with the entire city, the strait above and be- low, enlivened with shipping and steamboats, Lake St. Clair, and a wide extent of cultivated country around the city and on the Canada shore. The City Hall is a neat brick edifice, 100 feet by 50, which cost $20,000. The lower story is occupied as a market, and the upper for the city courts. The Michigan Bank is a costly and beautiful edifice of polished stone, in the Grecian style, two stories high above the basement. Several of the churches are beautiful buildings, among which is St. Paul’s, Episcopal, hi the Gothic style ; the First Presbyterian Church, with a Grecian portico of six Doric columns ; a Baptist Church of the Grecian Ionic order ; and St. Ann’s Cathedral, of hewn granite, 116 by 60 feet, with two towers in front, and surmounted by an octagonal dome 30 feet in diameter and 30 feet high. Among the higher literary institutions of the city are the Historical Society, founded in 1829 ; the State Literary Institute, founded in 1838 ; the State Medical Society ; the Young Men’s Society for Moral and In- tellectual Improvement, founded in 1832 ; a Young Ladies’ Seminary ; a Young Ladies’ Institute ; the St. Clair Seminary for Young Ladies, (Roman Catho- lic ;) and several high schools for boys. 124 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OR Detroit is advantageously located for trade, and is fast becoming a great commercial emporium. The navigation of the river and lake is open about eight months in the year. The Michigan Central Railroad now opens a direct and speedy communication through the most populous portion of the state to the opposite side of the peninsula ; and thence, by a few hours’ water passage, to Chicago, Milwaukie, and the far west. Other routes of communication are in the process of construction. Though the history of Detroit as a place of any con- siderable population and trade, is recent, correspond- ing to that of the whole western country, yet as a place of military importance it has had an early antiquity among the towns now belonging to the United States. It was founded by the French in 1683. In 1760 it fell into the hands of the British. In 1784 it became by treaty a possession of the United States, which main- tained a garrison there from 1796 until within a few years past. It was first incorporated as a city in 1802. In the war of 1812 Detroit was captured by the British, and recaptured by the Americans the next year. In 1815 it received a new charter of incorporation. The city has twice been extensively devastated by fire ; first in 1805, when it was nearly destroyed ; and afterwards in 1837, when there was also a great destruction of property. Number of inhabitants m 1857, 40,000. THE GREAT WEST. 125 LANSING. Capital of tlie state. Situated on Grand River, about 55 miles north from Jackson, which is on the Michigan Central Railroad, and 132 miles west by north from Detroit, Ada Jackson. In 1847 the place upon which it stands was covered with a thick forest. Noav there are about 400 buildings, including several large hotels. Both steam and water power are used for driving several flouring mills and saw mills. The State House is finely situated upon an eminence about 50 feet above the river, overlooking the town. It is a large and handsome edifice, and is surrounded by an ample enclosure, to be tastefully laid out and ornamented. Many things, in a town so recent, must be yet rough and incomplete ; but their outline is sufficiently de- veloped to indicate the beauty which will speedily adorn the new capital of this rich and enterprising state. Population in 1857, about 3000. 11 * THE GREAT WEST. 127 WISCONSIN. Wisconsin (or Ouisconsin) was admitted by act of Congress, February 9, 1847, as an independent state of the American Union. Portions of its original terri- tory were settled by the French as early as 1670. It passed from French to British jurisdiction in 1763, and so remained until 1794. After being connected with, and successively disconnected from, the respective States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan, it. was organized as a distinct territory of the United States in 1836. In 1838 it was further diminished in size by the separation from its present south-western border of what now forms the State of Iowa ; and, in 1849, still further lessened, by setting off the remainder of the region lying west of the Mississippi, now known as Minnesota Territory. BOUNDARIES AND EXTENT. The state, as now established, extends from the Il- linois line, in latitude 42° 30 / north, to latitude 45° 20', and reaches from Lake Michigan on the east to the Mississippi River on the west. Its extreme length, measured angularly, from north-east to south-west, is about 380 miles ; its breadth, from east to west, varies from 150 to 200 miles ; and its estimated area, as of- ficially returned, is 53,924 square miles. 128 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OR RIVERS. The principal rivers are, the Mississippi, which flows along its western border for a distance of 275 miles. The Wisconsin has its entire course within the state, flows centrally, and 'enters the Mississippi on its western border. It is navigable to the portage of Fox or Nee- nah River, where a canal is being made, which, when completed, with the contemplated improvements of Fox River, will make a navigable communication between the Mississippi and the lakes. The Chippewa enters the Mississippi farther north-west, and is a large river, and St. Croix River forms a portion of its extreme west boundary. Rock River rises and flows partly in this state. The other principal rivers are the Menomi- nee River on its east border, enters Green Bay, and the Montreal Lake Superior ; and there are several other small streams entering Lake Superior. The Mil- waukie, Sheboygan, and others enter Lake Michigan. The other most noted streams are the Wolf, Bad Axe, and Black Rivers. The principal lakes within its bor- ders are Winnebago, Horican, Kaslikohong, and the four lakes in the south, and many small ones in the north. CLIMATE. This thriving state, which has surpassed every other, except California, in the unexampled rapidity of its growth, is the theme of almost unmingled praise of the tourist and the emigrant from every part of Europe THE GREAT WEST. 129 and America. Its beautiful lakes, rolling prairies, swelling uplands, ar.d “ oak openings,” (i. e., lands covered with a scattered growth of oak,) fertile soil, its fine angling, abundance of game, and healthy cli- mate, tempt thither alike the permanent settler, the sportsman, and the lover of the picturesque. The cli- mate, though severe, and the winters long, is more reg- ular, and more free from those frequent and unhealthy changes that prevail farther south. The lakes, too, exert a mitigating influence, the temperature being 6i° higher on the lake than on the Mississippi side. The lake shore is also more moist, but the state generally is drier than in the same parallels farther east. From records kept between 1835 and 1845, it appears the Milwaukie River was closed on an average from November 22 to March 26 ; and steamboats arrived at Mineral Point from February 26 to April 16, closing from November 16 to December 4. The diseases consequent upon clear- ing lands are less frequent, it is said, in this than other new states, owing to the open nature of the country in the oak openings. The number of deaths in the year ending June, 1850, were 2884, or less than 10 in every thousand persons ; while Massachusetts had about 20. SURFACE AND SOIL. The natural feature ^peculiar to Wisconsin is the uniformity of its elevation and shape of its surface, which is neither mountainous, hilly, nor flat, but gen- tly undulating. The country west of Sugar River and 130 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OR south of the Wisconsin is somewhat broken, principally by the dividing ridge upon which the road from Madi- son to Prairie du Chien passes. In this section, known as the Mines, are several peculiar elevations called Mounds. West of the Wisconsin River is a range of high hills, being the only elevations in the state either deserving or assuming the dignity of mountains. The south-eastern portion of the state is marked by ravines at the streams, but little depressed below the surround- ing level. Its prominent features arc the prairie, des- titute of tree or shrub, covered only by a luxuriant growth of grass, interspersed with flowers of every hue ; the oak opening, the lake, the woodland on the border of streams, and the natural meadow. Proceed- ing north, to the Pox and Wisconsin Rivers, and Green Bay, the timber increases, and the soil gradually changes from the vegetable mould of the prairie to a sandy loam. The surface also becomes somewhat de- pressed and uneven, diversified with timber, rolling- prairie, large marshes, and extensive swamps, having an abundant growth of cranberries and wild rice. Still north and west the surface becomes more uneven, and the streams rapid, affording an abundance of water power for the manufacture of lumber from the im- mense forests of evergreen scarcely surpassed on the western continent. The soil of the prairie consists of a dark brown vege- table mould, from one to two feet in depth, very mellow, and entirely destitute of stone or gravel, and, for fer- tility and agricultural properties, cannot lie surpassed. THE GREAT WEST. 131 The subsoil is a clayish loam, similar to the soil of the timbered lands, and is also suitable for cultivation. The soil of the timbered land is less rich than the prairie, not so deep, and contains less carbonate of lime, which enters into the composition of the latter in the proportion of from 20 to 40 per cent. The mining region, unlike that of any other mineral dis- trict, promises a liberal reward, as well to the farmer as to the miner. The soil of the evergreen district is mostly sandy, and not so rich as in other portions of the state. It is nevertheless well adapted to agricul- ture and grazing. The prairies of Wisconsin are not so extensive as those of other states, and are so skirted and belted by timber, that they are well adapted to immediate and profitable occupation. The openings , which comprise a large portion of the finest land in the state, owe their present condition to the action of the annual fires which have kept under all other forest growth, except those varieties of oak which can with- stand the sweep of that element. The annual burning of an exuberant growth of grasses and of underbrush has been adding, perhaps for ages, to the productive power of the soil, and preparing it for the ploughshare. It is the great fact, nature has thus “cleared up” Wis- consin to the hand of the settler, and enriched it by yearly burnings, and has at the same time left sufficient timber on the ground for fence and fire wood, that ex- plains, in a great measure, the capacity it has exhibit- ed, and is now exhibiting, for rapid settlement and early maturity. There is another fact important to be 132 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OP. noticed in this connection. The low, level prairie, or natural meadow, of moderate extent, is so generally distributed over the face of the country, that the settler on a fme section of arable land finds on his own farm, or in his immediate neighborhood, abundant pasturage for his stock in summer on the open range ; and hay for the winter for the cutting — the bounty of Nature supplying his need in this behalf till the cultivated grasses may be introduced and become sufficient for his use. AGRICULTURE. There were in this state, in 1857, 1,200,000 acres of improved land, and 2,000,000 acres of unimproved land, in farms. Cash value of farms, 130,000,000. Value of implements and machinery, $2,000,000. Value of live stock, $5,000,000. The wheat crop last year was 11,000,000 bushels, rye, 100,000 ; corn, 2,250,000 ; oats, 4,000,000 ; bar ley, 225,000 ; buckwheat, 100,000 ; peas and beans, 25,000 ; potatoes, 1,700,000 ; sweet potatoes, 900 bushels. Products of the orchard, $5500. Products of market gardens, $40,000. Pounds of butter made, 4,000,000 ; of cheese, 425,- 000 ; maple sugar, 700,000. Molasses, 10,000 gallons. Pounds of wool produced, 300,000 ; tobacco, 1500 ; hay, 300,000 tons. THE GREAT WEST. 133 INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. Numerous internal improvements are in progress. The most important yet undertaken is that for improv- ing the navigation of Wisconsin and Fox Rivers. This work is prosecuted by authority of Congress, half a million acres of the public lands having been appropri- ated for the purpose. Steamboat navigation between Lake Michigan, via Green Bay and the Mississippi, is secured by the improvement of Fox River, and the completion of a canal to Lake Winnebago. A railroad connects Milwaukie with the Mississippi ; and con- venient plank roads run into the interior from many places on the lake. By reason of its contact with Lake Michigan, and the waters thereto adjacent, together with its extensive means of inland navigation, Wisconsin enjoys great commercial facilities. On the margin of the above lake lies Milwaukie, the most thriving and populous town in the state, which has sprung into being and importance, almost magically, within a very few years, and has rapidly become the centre of a vast amount of trade. Possessing the best harbor between Green Bay and Chicago, it is the chosen resort of most of the steamers from Buffalo and other ports on Lake Erie, thus commanding a controlling interest in the entire business of the state. Madison, the capital, is situated on a beautiful elevation, midway between Lake Michi- gan and the Mississippi, with both of which it has di- 12 134 THE GARDEN OF THE WOULD, OR rect communication by means of a series of streams or* either side. The principal places in the state are Madison, the capital, Milwaukie, Racine, Kenosha, Osaukee, Green Bay, Jamesville, and Prairie du Cliien. There were in January, 1854, 4 railroads in the state, with 178 miles of road finished and in operation, and 200 in course of construction; also, 10 banks with a cash capital of $600,000. RAILROADS IN WISCONSIN IN 1857. Five roads finished. Length Fin- In process when com- ished of con- Milwaukie and Mississippi pleted. portion. struction Railroad, ----- - 200 103 97 La Crosse and Milwaukie, - 95 55 40 Fond du Lac, - - - - - 50 30 20 Milwaukie and Watertown, 44 44 — Racine and Detroit Road, Wisconsin and Lake Shore - 80 40 40 Road, ------ - 40 40 — Kenosha Railroad, - - - 80 30 — Wisconsin Central Road, - 30 10 20 Mineral Point Road, - - - 30 30 — South Wisconsin Road, - - 50 50 — Beloit and Madison Road, - 46 30 16 695 462 233 Other roads are contemplated in Wisconsin, especially one to extend from the termination of the Fond du THE GREAT WEST. 135 Lac road to Lake Superior — one branch at Marquette and one at Ontonagon ; the former the centre of the iron district, and the latter of the copper region. GOVERNMENT. Wisconsin is at present subdivided into 29 counties. The state government is vested in a governor, lieuten- ant governor, Senate, and House of Representatives, the latter to consist of not less than 60, nor more than 120, members ; the number of senators not to exceed one third, nor be less than one fourth, of the number of representatives. The latter are elected by the peo- ple annually ; the senators and executive officers bi- ennially. The annual sessions of the legislature com- mence on the second Thursday of January. All white male citizens, Indians recognized as citizens by any United States law, and civilized persons of Indian blood, not members of any tribe, are legal voters after a residence of one year within the state. EDUCATION. The subject of education has received, as might be expected from the character and origin of the settlers, a due measure of attention. Ample provision has been made by law for the establishment of a college, and corresponding means have been set aside in every township for the support of common schools, all by dint of bountiful grants of land. The value of the 136 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OR school fund thus created is estimated at $2,780,912. Annual proceeds, $60,000. RELIGIOUS STATISTICS. There were in the state, in 1857, 49 Baptist churches, 4 Christian, 37 Congregational, 2 Dutch Reformed, 19 Episcopal, 2 Free, 20 Lutheran, 110 Methodist, 40 Presbyterian, 64 Roman Catholic, 1 Union, 6 Univer- salist, and 11 other sects, the whole having 365 churches. Total value of church property, $353,900. POPULATION. The population of Wisconsin has multiplied prodi- giously since the year 1830, when it numbered but about 4000. In 1847 it had reached over 200,000 ; and the census of 1850 states it at 305,191, including 626 free colored persons. Population in 1857, about 500,000. MADISON. The people of Wisconsin may justly feel a state pride in this capital city. Among the many beautiful towns that are springing up under the influence of the young and elastic energy of western enterprise in these North-western States, with a rapidity of growth that seems like magic, Madison stands preeminent for the health and beauty of its location Itr magnificent site THE GEE AT WEST. 137 and the delightful panorama of lakes, forest, and prairie that environ it, and which it overlooks, have called out numerous encomiums that read like exaggerations to those who have never visited the town. High, how- ever, as are the expectations raised respecting its beauty, by the many enthusiastic descriptions that have appeared in eastern journals and periodicals, we have never known the reality to disappoint any one. When these hills and slopes are clothed with the splendor of June — when the lakes are sparkling in the sunlight, or mirror the azure of the summer sky upon their unruffled surface, we have no fears that Madison will fall below the pre- conceptions of any reasonable man. The fame which it has acquired, however, as one of those favored spots where Nature has been most prodigal of her gifts of beauty, has diverted attention, to some extent, from its advantages as a business and manu- facturing town. These should not be overlooked. It is the great railroad centre of Wisconsin. It is and must continue to be nearly central in respect to its wealth and population. As the state capital, a large amount of wealth and business is attracted here. As the shire town of the largest and richest agricultural county in the state, it possesses another element of prosperity and growth. Its fine water power, and the facility of communication with all portions of the state, will render it an important manufacturing town. Its educational advantages, as the seat of the munifi- cently endowed University of Wisconsin, its literary 12 * 138 TIIE GARDEN OP THE WORLD, OR societies and public libraries, will attract those who regard the education of their children as of primary importance. Its salubrity and beauty of location will render it a popular watering-place. There is no rival town within forty miles on either hand. Throughout this spacious circuit there is hardly a waste acre of land. The hills are “ tolerant of culture ” to the top. The few marshes are as valuable as any portion of the land as natural meadows. The aspect of the country, in consequence of the prairies and openings, is older than most portions of New York and New England ; and, as has been well said, “ five years of labor here are more than equal in their results to fifty years’ toil in those states.” When this broad domain is fully settled and cultivated, its trade alone would build up a populous city on the site of Madison, the natural cen- tre to which its business gravitates. These are elements of greatness such as few towns in the west possess, and on which we may with confidence predicate the con- tinued growth and prosperity of Madison, and its certain hold, at least, upon the rank it has already acquired as the second city of the state in wealth and population. The population in 1857 was about 5000. MILWAUKIE. Court House, Milwaukie county, situated on the west- ern shore of Lake Michigan, 95 miles north from Chicago, and 80 miles east from Madison, the capital THE GREAT WEST. 139 of the state. The town lies on both sides of the Mil wankie River, which here runs nearly parallel to the shore of the lake, and empties into it just below. This place is the natural outlet of one of the finest regions for the production of cereal grains in the United States. Its growth has been remarkably rapid. In 1834 it contained only two log houses. A census of the town taken in June, 1846, showed a population of 9508 ; and another in December, 1847, only 18 months afterwards, of 14,071. The population in 1850 was 22,137; in 1857, 34,000. The site of Milwaukie is eligible in various respects. It commences about a mile above the mouth of the river, at a point called Walker’s Point, and extends from a mile and a half to two miles up the river, which is sufficiently wide and deep, to a point some distance above the town, to accommodate a large amount of shipping. At the head of this navigable portion of the river, a dam, erected by the Milwaukie and Rock River Canal Company, for the purpose of producing a slack water navigation about two miles farther up the stream, throws a large body of water into that sec- tion of the canal which courses into the town, creating there a water power which is estimated to be equal to about 100 runs of millstones. The manufac- tories erected on this canal have the advantage of being also located on the bank of the navigable river, which almost washes their foundations in the rear, so that they may be approached by the largest vessels and steamboats from the lakes. 140 THE GARDEN OP THE WORLD, OR The ground occupied by the town is elevated and uneven, rising from the river to the height of 50 to 100 feet, and affording beautiful situations for resi- dences, commanding a full view of the river, the bay, the lake, and the body of the town itself. The Bay of Milwaukie is an elliptical indentation of the lake shore against the town of about three miles in depth, and extending about six miles between its north and south points or capes, sufficiently separated from the body of the lake to protect the shipping from the effect of all the storms or gales of wind except such as come from the east, which here seldom occur. The river enters this bay about half a mile below its centre, and the whole distance between the mouth of the river and the commencement of the town is occu- pied by a low, impassable marsh, by some supposed once to have been a part of the bay. This place, for one of such rapid growth, is finely built. From a certain quality of the clay which abounds here, the bricks made from it, instead of being of the usual red, are of a light yellow or cream color, which gives to the warehouses and solid portions of the town, where this material is used, a peculiarly bright and beautiful appearance. Steamboats ply continually between this place and Buffalo, in the sea- son of lake navigation, and also to connect it with Chicago and other ports south, on Lake Michigan, and with the termini of the Michigan Central and Southern Railroads. Plank roads are rapidly extending from this point into the interior ; a railroad is in progress to the Mississippi, and one is proposed to Chicago. 142 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OR IOWA. Iowa, recently a dependency of the United States, is now an admitted member of the Federal Union. Until 1832 the country was held in undisputed possession by its rude and roaming Indian inhabitants, of whom it was then purchased ; and settlements were soon there- after commenced by civilized emigrants. In 1838, having been set off from Wisconsin, it was organized under a distinct territorial government ; and in 1846 the territory was duly elevated to the position of a free and independent American state. BOUNDARIES AND EXTENT. Iowa is bounded north by the Territory of Minnesota ; east by the Mississippi River, which separates it from the States of Wisconsin and Illinois ; south by the State of Missouri ; and west and north-west by portions of the Territories of Nebraska and Minnesota, from which it is separated by the Missouri and the Big Sioux Rivers. The country lies between 40° 30' and 43° 30' north latitude, and extends from 90° 30' to 96° 30' west longitude ; reaching some 200 miles from north to south, with an average extent of over 220 miles from east to west, and comprehending about 51,000 square miles. THE GEEA.T WEST. 143 RIVERS. No state in the Union is more bountifully supplied with water than Iowa ; being bounded on the east by ore of the finest rivers in the world, the Mississippi, and on the west by the Missouri ; the interior of the state being traversed in every direction by noble, and in many cases navigable, streams ; many of them run- ning parallel to each other, from 12 to 20 miles apart, skirted with timber of from one to five miles in width. Western rivers have not the rapidity of the New England streams, nor the depth and sluggishness of those of the south ; but are clear, fresh, and healthy, of gentle cur- rent, and capable of furnishing water power for all purposes. The rivers that are directly tributary to the Missis- sippi are the Upper Iowa, Turkey, Maquoketa, Wapsi- pinnicon, Cedar, Iowa, Fox, Checaque, (commonly called Skunk,) and the Des Moines. Those running into the Missouri are Floyd’s, Little Sioux, Inyan Yan- kee, Soldier, Boyer, Nishnabotna, Big Tarkeo, and Nodaway. Some of these streams are navigable for a great dis- tance, and the day is drawing nigh when the quiet of their banks shall be broken, and the shrill whistle of the heavily-laden steamer reverberate from shore to shore — when many of these streams shall have become thoroughfares for the transportation of the rich produc- tions of this most fertile and most prosperous state. “ The untold powers of some of these waters will soon 144 THE GARDEN OP THE WORLD, OR be utilized for mechanical purposes ; and but a shor 1 time will elapse ere the thunder and clatter of the ten thousand wheels of machinery will break upon that solitude which now echoes only to the harvest song or the notes of the sweet warblers of the forest. Exten- sive works are already commenced upon more than one of these rivers, which will stamp our greatness and con- vince the world that ‘ progress ’ is our watchword.” Besides those mentioned are their tributaries — the creeks, branches, or rivulets, penetrating every portion of the interior of the state ; springs of clear, cold water also abound in all parts of the state. CLIMATE. This state is located in the healthiest latitude of our continent ; reaching only to latitude 43° 30' on its northern boundary. Its winters are comparatively mild and pleasant, and its summers free from the long scorching rays of a southern sun and the epidemics so common in such climates. By the medical journals, Iowa is ranked as second only in point of health ; and no doubt it will be first , when she has a settled and acclimated population, as free from toil, privations, and exposure as other states. There is generally an unbroken winter from the mid- dle of November till January, when there is almost in- variably a “ January thaw ; ” after which the weather is generally mild, and gradually merges into spring. The country is free from the sudden changes of New THE GREAT WEST. 145 England, and from tlie long, drizzling rains and foggy weather of portions of the Middle States. The storms are from the east ; the showers are from the west. One of the peculiarities of this climate is the dryness of its summers and autumns. A drought often com- mences in August, which, with the exception of a few showers towards the close of that month, continues, with little interruption, throughout the fall season. The autumnal months are almost invariably clear, warm, and dry. SURFACE AND SOIL. With the exception of some high hills in the northern part, the surface is nowhere mountainous, but consists of table lands, prairies,* and gently swelling eminences covered with timber. Ranges of bluffs, from 30 to 120 feet in height, intersected with ravines, generally ter- minate the table lands upon the borders of rivers. The soil is almost universally good, reaching to a depth of 18 to 24 inches on the upland prairies, and from 24 to 48 inches on the bottom lands. Constant cultivation for a century would scarcely exhaust it. It produces every description of grain and vegetables suited to the climate, and is peculiarly favorable to the growth of fruit. Timber is not abundant, except in certain sec- tions, comprising in all about one fourth part of the state. But the country is so well supplied with river navigation, that this deficiency in other quarters is not felt. Among the indigenous fruits are vast quantities 13 146 THE GARDEN OP THE WORLD, OR of plums, grapes, strawberries, crab apples, &c. The crops of wheat ordinarily amount to 30 or 35 bushels per acre ; and the yield of corn is from 50 to 75 bushels. Wells of excellent water are obtained at a depth of 25 to 30 feet. The future farms of Iowa, large, level, and unbroken by stump or other obstruction, will afford an excellent field for the introduction of mowing machines, and other improved implements calculated to save the la- bor of the husbandman, and which, in new countries, reclaimed from the forest, can scarcely be employed until the first generation shall have passed away. AGRICULTURE. There were in this state, in 1857, 200,000 acres of land, improved and unimproved, in farms, about one fourth of which was under cultivation. Cash value of farms, $41,000,000. Value of implements and ma- chinery attached thereto, $1,500,000. Value of live stock, horses, cows and other cattle, $4,000,000. The wheat crop last year was 5,000,000 bushels; rye, 57,000 ; corn, 24,000,000 ; oats, 3,000,000 ; bar- ley, 65,000 ; buckwheat, 150,000 ; peas and beans, 10,000; potatoes, 8000 ; sweet potatoes, 10,000 ; value of products of the orchards, $10,000 ; value of pro- ducts of the market gardens, $10,500. Pounds of butter made, 2,500,000 ; cheese, 2,025, 000 ; maple sugar, 100,000 ; molasses, 3500 gallons. THE GREAT WEST. 147 INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. There are several very important railroad lines pro- jected, some of which are partly under contract, and others of which may not be built for years. Three different lines have been explored and surveyed, com- mencing at Davenport, as follows : — One from Davenport, through Muscatine, thence through the northern part of Louisa county, and through Washington, Keokuk, Mahaska, Marion, War- ren, Madison, Adair, Adams, and Montgomery coun- ties, to the Missouri River, near the mouth of the Platte. Another from Davenport, through Scott, Johnson, Iowa, Powesheik, Jasper, Polk, Dallas, Guthrie, Audubon, and Shelby counties, to the Missouri River, in Pottawattamie county. A third line, from Muscatine, through Cedar and Lime 'counties, to Cedar Rapids, with a view to the further continuation of the line, north-westwardly, into the Territory of Minnesota. These explorations were made under the direction of Henry Parnam, chief engineer ; and in December, 1852, an association was formed, under the general laws of Iowa. The routes embraced in the Articles of Association are, a line from Davenport, by way of Muscatine, to the southern or western boundary of Iowa ; and north- wardly, by way of Cedar Rapids, up the Cedar Valley to the north line of the State of Iowa ; thus combining 148 THE GARDEN OP THE WORLD, OR in one organization a system of railroads for Central Iowa, whose eastern terminus shall he the bridge over the Mississippi River at Davenport. Those portions of these roads between Davenport and Iowa City, and between Muscatine and Oskaloosa, are under contract, and will be ready for the cars some time during the coming summer. The line from Muscatine to Cedar Rapids has been permanently located, and that portion of it which forms a junction with the Davenport Road is nearly ready for the cars ; so that Muscatine will be in connection with the main line to New York City as soon as the track is laid from Davenport to the junction. The chief engineer says of the country, “ In No- vember last, in company with John B. Jervis, Esq., consulting engineer, James Archibald, Esq., a distin- guished engineer, General George B. Sargeant, of Davenport, and the lion. N. B. Judd, of Chicago, I passed over the line from Iowa City to Fort Des Moines, and thence down the ‘ divide ’ between the Des Moines and Skunk to Oskaloosa, and from Oskaloosa, through Keokuk, Washington, and Louisa counties, to Musca- tine. The whole country on both routes is one of unsurpassed beauty and fertility. Since then, I have passed over the line from Muscatine to Cedar Rapids. No more beautiful or productive region of country can be found in the Union. There is literally no waste land to be found, and the settlements are such, that a railroad would be immediately productive. The entire land on each of the routes from Davenport to THE GREAT WEST. 149 Fort Des Moines, from Muscatine to Oskaloosa, and from Muscatine to Cedar Rapids, has been all pur- chased of the government, and the State of Iowa is settling with a rapidity unparalleled in the history of any state.” The Mississippi Bridge, now being built at Davenport, connects the Chicago and Rock Island and the Mis- sissippi Railroads, making one continuous line, with- out interruption or break of gauge, from Chicago to the Missouri River. The people of Iowa, Western Minne- sota, and those who are to cultivate the fertile soil of Nebraska, will never consent to be shut out from the Atlantic and the great western lakes by any pretended obstruction which a bridge built on the plan proposed may offer. The bridge will span the Mississippi on the Rapids, where the current is compressed to a narrow space, so that boats, to strike the piers on either side, would first have to surmount rocks which Nature* has had fixed as impediments to navigation for centuries, and of which the proposed improvement of the Rapids does not contemplate the removal. Simply a skexeton railroad bridge, the draw will always be up, save when the cars are actually crossing ; which never can occur when a steamboat is passing, except by the grossest negligence. For the reasons thus concisely given, we argue that this bridge will prove no obstruction to the navigation of the river. The estimated cost of the before-mentioned lines, for grading and bridging, track superstructure, equipments, 13 * 150 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OR station buildings, engineering, and contingencies, are as follows: — Division. Dist. Miles. Cost. Average per Mile. Davenport to Iowa City, . 54.92 $1,516,790.00 $27,618.00 Iowa City to Fort Des Moines, 119.00 3,554,870.00 29,873.00 Muscatine to Oskaloosa, . . . 95.27 2,557,500.00 26,845.00 Muscatine to Cedar Rapids, , 62.64 1,493,250.00 23,839.00 Making in the aggregate, $9,122,410.00 Several other railroad lines are proposed, and in part under contract, which we will mention : — The Burlington and Missouri River Railroad, being a continuation of the Chicago and Burlington Railroad, passes west, through the centres of Henry, Jefferson, Wapello, Monroe, Lucas, Clarke, Union, Adams, Montgomery, and Mills counties, striking the Missouri opposite the mouth of the Big Platte, or Nebraska Rive#, some twenty-five miles below Council Bluffs. This road is under contract to Wapello county, and the prospects of an early completion are good. Bur- lington has recently had railroad connection with Chicago, “ through by daylight.” The Lyons Central Railroad, a continuation of the Chicago Air Line Railroad, passes west from Lyons, through Clinton and Cedar counties, to Iowa City, in Johnson county, where it connects with the Missis- sippi and Missouri Railroad. This road was all under contract, and considerable work done at different points ; but its progress has been suspended for some months. We understand that a new company has resumed the THE GREAT WEST. 151 enterprise, and are hastening it to an early com- pletion. The Northern Iowa Railroad, a continuation of the Illinois Central, is projected from Dubuque west, through the counties of Dubuque, Delaware, Bu- chanan, Blackhawk, Grundy, Hardin, Webster, Cal- houn, Sac, Ida, and Woodbury, striking the Missouri at Floyd’s Bluffs, at the mouth of the Big Sioux River. A branch of this road is also projected, to run from Delhi, in Delaware county, north, through Clay- ton, Fayette, and Winneslieik, to St. Paul, Minnesota. A line connecting with the Chicago and Mississippi Railroad (which reaches the Missouri in Carroll county, Illinois) is projected to pass through Jackson, Jones, Linn, Benton, Tama, Marshall, Story, Boone, Greene, Carroll, and Crawford, striking the Missouri in Mahona county. A line running as a continuation of the North Mis- souri Railroad enters the state in Davis county, passing through Appanoose, Lucas, and Warren, to Fort Des Moines, crossing the Burlington and Missouri Railroad at Chariton, the Muscatine and Platte Yalley Railroad at Indianolo, and connecting with the Mississippi and Missouri Railroad at Fort Des Moines. A portion of this road is under contract, and, we are informed, will be pushed through as rapidly as circumstances will admit. A branch of this line leaves Fort Madison, passing through Lee, Van Buren, and Davis, connect- ing with the Northern Missouri and Des Moines Rail- road in Appanoose county. 152 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OR The Des Moines Valley Railroad is to leave the Mis- sissippi at Keokuk, passing through Lee, Van Buren, Jefferson, Wapello, Mahaska, Marion, and Jasper, to Fort Des Moines, there connecting with two east and west lines. This is considered by many as being one of the most important routes, as the Des Moines Valley, in mineral and agricultural productions, is the richest valley in the state. Another line, as a continuation of the Philadelphia and Fort Wayne Air Line Railroad, to leave the Mis- sissippi at the mouth of the Iowa River, passing through Louisa and Washington counties, connecting at Wash- ington with the Muscatine and Oskaloosa Railroad, has been proposed. A preliminary survey has been made of a railroad from Keokuk to Davenport, via Montrose, West Point, Mount Pleasant, Columbus City, and Muscatine ; the entire distance being 70f miles. The estimated cost of this road, including furniture, depots, fencing, Ac., is $1,911,934. This is one of the many roads which will seek the bridge at Davenport as the Mississippi crossing. We doubt not that those railroad lines penetrating into the state, which are continuations of roads from the east and south, will be pushed forward to an early completion. The construction of the several roads reaching from Chicago towards the Mississippi River demonstrates that railroads may be constructed through a country of THE GREAT WEST. 153 prairie on the line of emigration, and yield a profit as soon and as far as opened. The receipts of the Chicago and Rock Island Road from the 10 th of July to the 10th of January were 1710,688 86 ; running expenses for the same time, $440,764 86; leaving a balance of $270,894. The whole number of passengers passing over the road for the five months ending December 1, amounted to 168,824 ; total amount of freight trans- ported during the same time, 49,734 tons. We give the statistics of this road, because it was the first which reached the Mississippi, and reliable facts could be more easily obtained. Nor is this railroad an exception — each of the Chicago and Mississippi, and the Galena and Chicago lines, pay well as far as completed. EDUCATION. A superintendent of public instruction is chosen by the people for three years. A large school fund is secured by the appropriation of lands granted by Congress, escheated estates, and the percentage allowed by Congress on sales of public lands within the state. Common schools in all the school districts are also maintained by law from other sources of revenue. There is also a large fund assigned for the support of a university. The permanent school fund, at interest, in 1859, amounted to about $279,000. 154 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OR RELIGIOUS STATISTICS. There were in this state in 1855, 78 Congregational churches ; ministers, 57 ; number of members, 2500 ; number of meeting houses built, 50. Of the Baptist denomination there were 105 churches and 60 pastors ; number of members, 4100. Of the Presbyterian de- nomination there were 1850 members and 175 churches. Of the Methodist Episcopal denomination there were 85 churches, 45 parsonages, 225 preachers, and 16,000 members. Of Roman Catholics there were 85 churches ; stations, 17 ; religious communities, 5 ; Catholic academies, 4 ; clergymen, 29 ; Catholic popu- lation, 29,000. POPULATION. The population of the-- territory in 1836 was 10,531 ; in 1840 it was 43,017 ; in 1850, 192,214. The census, as returned by the secretary of state, taken in the spring of 1854, is as follows: Males, 170,302; fe- males, 154,900; total population, 325,202. Voters, 59,984; militia, 50,284 ; aliens, 10,373 ; colored males, 258 ; colored females, 222 ; blind, 27 ; deaf and dumb, 28 ; insane, 47 ; idiots, 7. There is one vote to every five and a half and a fraction of the population. According to this last census, the number of males exceeds that of the females some 16,000. Let the Yankee girls take the hint when they see these figures. The number of inhabitants in the state in January, THE OftEAT WEST. 155 1857, has been estimated at upwards of 500,000. Those who have seen and can realize that Iowa is the mouth of the great stream of humanity, whose tribu- taries extend far and wide, into every state and many nations — that stream which is daily and hourly pour- ing into this great, and fertile, and beautiful state its hundreds and thousands, cannot but predict that in 1860 Iowa will be peopled by more than a million of hardy, energetic, and intelligent inhabitants. By some this may be deemed a wild speculation ; but we think we have good and sufficient reasons for placing our estimate thus. DAVENPORT. Davenport, the county seat of Scot# county, contains 12,000 inhabitants, a greater number than was in the whole State of Iowa in 1838, and is delightfully situ- ated on the west bank of the Mississippi, with a bluff 100 feet high skirting its back, and extending for miles up and down the river. The city was laid out in 1836, under the supervision of Alexander W. M’ Gregor, Esq., one of its oldest inhabitants, and others ; and the streets, which are spacious, run at right angles, with an alley between each. Davenport contains many handsome churches, public buildings, commodious stores and warehouses. During the past year there have been erected 600 buildings, against 400 in 1854. The houses are neat, and the cottages on the bluff are as elegant as many 156 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OR you will see on the Hudson. From almost any of the high grounds, back of Davenport, the scenery is charming, affording a. beautiful landscape view of the windings of the river and the Illinois shore. Oppo- site the city, on the Illinois side, is the thriving city of Rock Island, containing a population of some 8000. The river here, dividing these twin cities, as they are called, is half a mile wide, connected by two good steam ferry boats, leaving every ten minutes during the day ; fare five cents each way. In the Mississippi, opposite the upper end of Daven- port, is Rock Island, named from the rocky strata upon which it stands — celebrated for the beauty of its scenery and defences against the incursions of the Indians. On the lower end are the remains of Fort Armstrong, now abandoned. This island is three miles long by an average width of three quarters of a mile. It is still reserved by government, except a quarter section donated to the late Colonel Davenport, the former Indian agent. It would be valuable for resi- dences, and yield the treasury some 1500,000, should the government ever need funds. It is across the lower end of this island the first bridge over this mighty river is now being built ; and when finished, trains can run through from Chicago to Iowa City by daylight. The bridge will be completed by the 1st May, affording a continuous line of railroad from Jersey City to loAva City, a distance of over 1200 miles, requiring but an extension of some 1800 miles farther west to carry it into the Sacramento valley, in California. THE GREAT WEST. 157 In order to show the great rapidity with which this part of Iowa has been settled, the oldest native of Scott county is a son of A. W. M’ Gregor, Esq., now but 18 years of age ; and yet the county has a popula- tion of 20,000. The county was named in honor of General Scott. Looking back some twenty-three years, when this whole region of country bore the footprints of the Sacs, Foxes, Pottawattomies, and the renowned Black Hawk and his band, and glancing at the spot where Davenport now stands, covered then by a few wigwams, and where now may be seen a beautiful and thriving city, the mind seems lost in amazement at its rapid growth. DUBUQUE. The city of Dubuque, one of the largest and most densely populated in the state, is handsomely situated upon a natural terrace. The streets run parallel to each other, and owing to the peculiar soil at this loca- tion, are never muddy. This city is more compactly built, and contains a greater proportion of fine build- ings than any other place in the state. Among these the Catholic cathedral, court house, and hotels stand prominent. The city is bounded on the west by a range of high cliffs, from which the prospect of the city and county is entrancingly beautiful. Three daily newspapers are published in Dubuque : the “ Express and Herald,” the “ Tribune,” and the Id 158 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OR “ Observer,” each issuing, besides, a weekly edition. We have not the name of the weekly German paper. The population of Dubuque county, according to the census of 1854, is 16,513 ; and of the city, accord- ing to West’s statistics, 10,000. The number of build- ings erected in the city last year was 332. Of the society in Dubuque we need not remark further than to state, that this population of 10,000 ably sup- port eleven churches, one female seminary, one college, five select and common schools, twenty-four lawyers, and fourteen physicians. This city, being the present terminus of two important railroads, must necessarily become a place of great commercial importance. Good investments can be made in the establishing, at Dubuque, of manufactories of red and white lead, lead pipe, shot, and sheet lead. Capitalists should investi- gate this matter. From the following statistics the reader may judge of the commercial importance of the city of Dubuque : — Total Tonnage. Yalue. Imports to Dubuque in 1853, . . 32,007 $2,497,123 30 « <« 1854, . . 97,633 4,933,208 65 Increase, . . 65,626 $2,436,085 35 Exports from Dubuque in 1853, . . 7,482 $1,006,710 “ << 1854, . . 11,736 1,573,408 30 Increase, . . . 4,254 $566,698 05 Lead exported in 1854, .... . 4,385 $526,200 Iron, steel, and nails exp. in 1851 , 1,200 192,000 Plour exported in 1854, .... 180 1,200 THE GREAT WEST. 159 Wheat exported in 1854, .... 880 48,000 Corn exported in 1854, 385 5,555 We invite the reader’s particular attention to the following comparative table of immigration, for the past two years : — Crossed the Duhuque Ferry in 1853. 1854. Men, women, and children 6,200 38,400 Wagons, 2,404 4,300 Carriages, 3,110 2,100 Cattle, 5,506 9,518 Sheep, 300 2,708 Hogs, 520 6,630 The immigration to Iowa, in 1854, at this point as well as others, was very large. The amount of the public domain sold at the Dubuque Land Office, du- ring the year, is, cash sales, 1,120,000 acres ; located with military warrants, 250,000. The snug sum of $3,961,736 in specie was exported to St. Louis from this land office during the year ; this exceeds the like exports of ten previous years. THE GREAT WEST. 161 MISSOURI. Missouri is one of tlie Western — or, at present, more properly, one of the Central — States of the American Union. It formerly composed a part of the extensive tract, which, under the name of Louisiana, was purchased of France by the United States in the year 1803. In the following year, that portion of the country which now forms the State of Louisiana was set off from the residue, and denominated the Territo- ry of Orleans ; the remainder being styled the District of Louisiana, until 1812, when the name was changed to the Territory of Missouri. Another division took place about eight years afterwards, and in 1821 the state was formed out of a section of that territory, and duly admitted into the Union. Some of the places within the present limits of Missouri were settled as early as the year 1764, by hunters and traders gen- erally from the north and east. In that year the city of 23t. Louis was founded, now the largest commercial place on the Mississippi, excepting New Orleans. St. Charles, on the Missouri, was established in 1780, and New Madrid on the Mississippi, in 1787. BOUNDARIES AND EXTENT. Missouri is bounded north by the State of Iowa ; east by the Mississippi River, which separates it from the 14 * 162 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OR \ States of Illinois, Kentucky, and part of Tennessee ; south by the State of Arkansas ; and west by the In- dian Territory, and by the' River Missouri, dividing it from the Deserts of Nebraska. It extends from 36° to 40° 36' north latitude, and lies between 89° and 95° 45' west longitude. Its area is estimated at 67,380 square miles, being about 278 miles in length by 235 in breadth. RIVERS. Missouri enjoys the navigation of the two greatest rivers in the United States, if not in the world. By means of the Mississippi River, which coasts her entire eastern boundary, she can hold commercial intercourse with the most northern territory of the Union, with the whole of the valley of the Ohio, with some of the Atlantic States, and with the Gulf of Mexico. By means of the Missouri, her other great river, she may extend her internal commerce to the Rocky Mountains, besides receiving the products that may be furnished in future times by its multitude of tributaries. The Mis- souri River coasts the north-west of the state for about 200 miles, (following its windings,) and then darts across the state in a direction a little south of east, dividing it into two portions, of which about a third is north, and the remainder south of that river. The south shore is bounded in many places by bluffs of from 100 to 300 feet in height, while the north is often bottom lands not generally liable to inundation. Both the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers are navigable for THE GREAT WEST. 163 large steamers far beyond the limits of the state, though the navigation of the latter is impeded by the swiftness of its current (twice that of the Mississippi) and by the shifting sands. The Missouri River receives a number of tributaries within the limits of the state, the princi- pal of which are the Chariton and Grand Rivers from the north, and the Osage and Gasconade from the south. The principal tributaries of the Mississippi River within the state are the Salt River, north, and the Maramec River, south of the Missouri River. The St. Francis and White Rivers, with their branches, drain the south- east part of the state, and pass into Arkansas. The Osage is navigable for boats of light draught 200 miles, and it is proposed to improve its navigation, as well as ' that of the Grand, Salt, and Maramec Rivers. Fine plank and timber are floated down the Gasconade River. CLIMATE. The central and inland position of the state assures to its inhabitants extraordinary freedom from the sud- den and trying changes which are felt by residents nearer the sea coast in the same latitudes. The differ ence of temperature between the cold of winter and the heat of summer is great — the extreme range of the thermometer being from 8° below zero to 100° above. But the seasons, in their progress, are gradual and uniform, subject to few or no abrupt and violent transitions. The air is pure and salubrious, and the climate may be classed among those most favorable to 164 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OR SURFACE, SOIL, &c. The surface and soil are much varied throughout the state. In some quarters, the lands are undulating and hilly, not rising, however, to a height that can be de- scribed as mountainous. Other portions are swampy, and subject to inundations, though heavily timbered, and having an alluvial soil of great fertility. The soil upon the uplands is in general very productive, consist- ing both of prairies and extensive tracts of woodland ; but these are interspersed with rocky ridges and ele- vated barrens. The low lands, bordering on the rivers, are extremely rich. Indian corn and other grains, hemp, flax, tobacco, and sweet potatoes are among the products of the field. Cotton is raised in the southern section of the state. Among the forest trees are various species of oak, walnut, locust, ash, cedar, No. 3 Winter Street, Boston, 1857. 5 Thomas H. Webb, Secretary. In answer to the numerous inquiries respecting Kanzas, daily addressed to the secretary, both by letter and in person, the following has been pre- pared, which contains as concise and definite replies as can conveniently be furnished at short notice. It is scarcely necessary to say that no methodic arrangement has been attempted. We would premise that — The Company has not endeavored, neither does it noto endeavor, to entice people to go to Kanzas, — it has not paid, neither does it intend to pay, in whole or in part, the expenses of transporting individuals to, or of supporting them after their arrival in, the territory. Its course has been and still is, to use all the means in its power to collect the best and most reliable information relative to the territory, and furnish the same to those desiring it. Each individual, having received and duly 204 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OR weighed the information, must then decide for himself whether or not it is advisable to immigrate. If the decision be to go, the company will do all in its power to speed him on his destined way, and afford him such facilities in locating as it may from time to time be enabled to do. The principal advantages to be derived through the company are, diminution in the rates of fare, — protection, as far as possible, from the imposition practised on the unwary, by runners, speculators, and others, — advice, through agents in Kanzas, relative to selecting suitable sites for settlements, and (what we deem the paramount advantage) the opportunity of forming commu- nities at once, and thus early enjoying all the benefits resulting from association, instead of locating, as is usually the case, at wide-spread dis- tances, and in consequence generations passing by before any of the benefits and privileges of settlements can be realized. Beyond extending these fa- cilities the company' does not pledge itself, though, if its appeal to the public be satisfactorily responded to, it will do whatever may be in its power, in the way of improvements, to promote the welfare and advance the prosperity of such settlements as originate under its auspices. Time of Departure. — The first regular spring party will leave Boston for Kanzas as early in March as the state of the Missouri River navigation will render practicable ; and subsequently parties will leave at least weekly throughout the season, or until notice be given to the contrary. Fare. — The passage fare for each adult, from here to Kanzas City,* Mo., or to Leavenworth,! K. T., will be about forty dollars, until the summer arrangement of railroads and steamboats is made, after which it will be somewhat less ; for children between the ages of 12 and 4 years, half price ; under 4 years, passage free ; over 12 years, full price. Tickets must be pro- cured at this office, or through some authorized agent of the company. Meals and Lodging. — These from St. Louis to Kanzas City are included in the price above stated ; but both are extra charges prior to reaching St. Louis. J , The parties will spend the first night at Albany, if the western route, — at Rutland, if the Fitchburg route is taken ; lodging and breakfast, 75 cents. If the New York and Erie Railroad route is selected, the first night may be spent on board of a Sound steamboat, which will afford an opportunity for a good night’s rest after the fatigue and excitement preceding and attendant upon departure. Thus refreshed, the remainder of the journey can be ac- complished with comparative ease. The cost of boat meals, fifty cents each. Subsequently, accidents excepted, the journey, whichever route is selected, will be continued uninterruptedly to St. Louis, unless a Sunday inter- venes. * Kanzas City is near the border of the territory, at the mouth of the Kanzas River. Here parties disembark, and make the necessary arrangements for going, at their own expense, to that section of Kanzas Territory where, by the advice of the company’s agents, or their own choice, they decide to locate. f Those who intend settling north of the Kanzas or Kaw River had, perhaps, better continue up the Missouri River as far as Leavenworth, and there disembark and com- plete their outfit. 7 On this part of the route regular meals, as at hotels, cannot be had, and should not be expected ; as on all other railroad routes, at way stations persons have an opportu- nity of taking a lunch, or of purchasing various articles of food, so that the cost need not average more than 25 cents the meal, and the whole expense to St. Louis ought not to exceed §5. Persons having families with them can materially lessen their expenses by taking along, in a tin can, a boiled ham, or some corned beef, crackers, and cheese, &c. They should by all means carry, or procure at St. Louis, a canteen, gourd, leather tank, or other water holder, that may he readily handled and not easily broken. With a little trouble this may be replenished with fresh spring water at most of the boat landings. Tims supplied, there will he no necessity of drinking the Missouri Rivet water, a too free indulgence in which is one great cause of the prevalence of bowel com- plaints among travellers in that region. THE GREAT WEST. 205 The first parties will necessarily go most of the distance to St. Louis by railroad. As soon as the Lake Erie navigation reopens, that route will be preferable, as it will afford an opportunity for a second night’s rest. Amount of Baggage. — Each whole ticket entitles the holder to carry 100 lbs. of baggage ; half-price ticket, 50 lbs. All excess will be charged at the rate of.from $3 to $4 per 100 lbs. If sent as freight, the charge will be, from here to St. Louis, $2 50 per 100 lbs. In either case, from St. Louis to Kan- zas- City the cost will vary from ^ of a cent to cents the pound, according to the season of the year and the competition prevailing. Packing and Directing. - — All baggage should be packed in trunks, chests, or very moderate sized, well-made boxes, with strong handles ; in no ease should large boxes, barrels, or rickety packages of any kind be used. The owner’s name and place of destination should be conspicuously marked on his baggage, and, in addition, the following in lafge letters : — Checks for Baggage. — Those who join the parties at Boston, or at any place on the route selected, where the baggage is checked, must be sure to have it attended to, and to receive the duplicate or counter check from the baggage master. Change of Baggage. — Whenever on the route a change of baggage is to take place, each individual should, for the greater security, personally see that his own is carried with the rest to the railroad or boat, as the case may be If mislaid, prompt notice should be given to the agent having charge of the party, that he may at once notify the conductor, or other suitable railroad or steamboat officer. a Freight. — When freight is to be sent, the owner or his_ agent should ob- tain from the transportation or forwarding agent at Boston, or at the other places of forwarding, a receipt in duplicate for its safe delivery at St. Louis. On the owner’s arrival at St. Louis, if, in advance of the freight, he should leave one of the receipts with some forwarding house, that of Messrs. F. A Hunt & Co., No. 19 Levee, is recommended, who will take charge of ship- ping it to Kanzas City or Leavenworth, for the usual commission. The owner should not pay freightage until the goods are delivered to him or his order, at the place designated. The packages, if to be sent by the Michigan Central or Great Western Railroad route, should be Packages marked as above can be forwarded from the freight depot of the Western Railroad, Lincoln Street. If forwarded from the Fichburg freight depot, substitute (in the square) “ N.” for “ W.,” or prefix “American” to “ Lake Shore Route.’’ If the New York and Erie Railroad is preferred, substitute (in the square) “ N. Y. & B.” for “ W. & C.,” and send the packages to the Providence Railroad Depot, Pleasant Street, near the foot of the Common. KANZAS PARTY’S BAGGAGE. marked Boston. [Owner’s name here.] Kanzas City, Care of C. & M. R. R., Chicago. 18 I 206 THE GARDEN OP THE WORLD, OR All articles not immediately wanted had better, for economy’s sake, be sent as freight. The charge per 100 lbs., from Boston to St. Louis, will be about $2 50 ; average time, 18 days. Shipping Freight. — It will be still more economical, and far better where the quantity of freight is large, to ship it to New Orleans, and thence send it by steamer to St. Louis. In this case, mark, as before, with name and destination, and, in addition, “ Care of E. M. Daly & Co., New Orleans, to be forwarded to F. A. Hunt & Co., No. 19 Levee, St. Louis.” Such freight left with Messrs. Allen & AVeltch, No. 129 State Street, Boston, will be duly shipped. Freight to New Orleans, 5 to 6 cents per cubic foot ; $2 to $3 per ton ; barrels, capable of holding 150 lbs., 25 to 30 cents each. Cost from New Orleans to St. Louis, about 50 cents the 100 lbs. Time, usually 20 days to New Orleans, and about the same thence to St. Louis. Insurance the whole distance, 2£ pef cent. No Pledge Required. — The emigrants come under no written or verbal obligation or pledge to the company ; they leave here free agents, and it is hoped they will continue so to be. Still, knowing that the great object is to secure freedom for all, it is presumed that no one will be so dishonest as to avail of the advantages and privileges that may be secured through the company’s means, and then war against its principles. If, however, parties entertaining adverse sentiments desire to be forwarded by the company, it will be done cheerfully, under the full conviction that when they see the great benefits and decided advantages resulting from free labor, a great majority of them will become worthy and efficient allies. The company does expect, however, that all who go out under its aus- picesjwill do so with the intention of becoming actual settlers. Nenlier is it necessary for an individual who purposes removing to Kan- zas to become a member of the company, in order to join one of its parties. Unless such a one has ample means,, instead of subscribing for stock, let him husband his means, in order to make them as available as possible after he arrives at his new abode. What to take and where to buy. — Most articles not owmed had better not be purchased prior to reaching St. Louis or Kanzas City. Good clothing suited for service, not show, such as is adapted for this section of the coun- try, also bedding, (not beds, on account of their bulk,) and perhaps some choice articles of furniture, had better be sent along ; but most of the ne- cessaries for housekeeping, also agricultural implements, &c., can be ob- tained on reasonable terms at the places above designated. Indeed, all ordinary articles of housekeeping, husbandry, &c., may be now obtained in Lawrence, Leavenworth, and probably some other settlements within the territory, on as reasonable terms as elsewhere. Mechanics who will require their tools immediately had better take them along at baggage prices; time being to them money, they will save by this course. Cattle. — The price of good working cattle, horses, cows, &c., is nearly the same in Kanzas and its vicinity as in New England ; perhaps rather cheaper. The price of cows has heretofore ranged from $25 to $35 ; oxen, per yoke, from $50 to $100; horses from $75 to $100 each ; common sheep from $1 50 to $2 50 each. Consult Company’s Agents. — In regard to these and other purchases, as well as for information about the territory, desirable places for settlement, &c., parties, on their arrival at Kanzas City, are recommended to consult Samuel C. Pomeroy, Esq., one of the company’s agents, who will at all times cheerfully and promptly furnish reliable information, and conscien- tiously advise them how, in his judgment, they are most likely to advance their own interests, and aid in accomplishing the prime object had in view by the company. Dr. Charles Robinson, at Lawrence, now favorably known to the public by his judicious course and discreet management during the lale invasion of that settlement, and Charles H. Branscomb, Esq., both THE GREAT WEST. 207 active, highly efficient, and perfectly reliable agents, will counsel and ad- vise all who apply to them ; and any other agents who may be from time to time employed, will be instructed to offer every facility that consistently can be done to all who migrate under the company’s auspices. Means. — As regards the amount of means requisite to make a person comfortable,” people will vary in their estimate, according to their ideas of what constitutes comfort. With $100 clear of expenses wherewith to commence territorial life, a person of good moral habits and reasonable and moderate desires, should be able always to keep above want, whatever pur- suit or avocation he may follow, whether that of a farmer, mechanic, or laborer ; provided he is blessed with ordinary health, and proves active, energetic, and industrious. Land , how acquired. — The land is to be purchased of the United States, at $1 25 per acre ; 160 acres and no more can be taken, and this only by an actual settler in person ; the individual must be a citizen of the United States, or have filed the declaration of intention to become such, and either be the head of a family, or a widow, or a single man, over the age of 21 years. Payment may be made at any time after the government survey has been completed, but need not be until immediately prior to the commencement of the public sale in that district where the person has fixed his location ; the money cannot be paid portions at a time; locations may be made any where save on the government or Indian reserves, or on certain tracts which by law are exempted from the operations of the preemption act ; the indi- vidual must be an inhabitant of the tract, and in person have made a set- tlement, and erected a dwelling thereon ; within three months after it has been surveyed by the United States it must be duly entered at the registry office of the district within which it is located. The commissioner of the general land office has prescribed the subjoined form, for the information of those who desire to avail of the right to secure land under the pre.”mption law. This form of declaration may be written or printed, must be signed by the applicant, in presence of a witness, who must certify to it by his signature, and it must then be delivered at or trans- mitted to the office of the territorial surveyor-general. No variation must be made in the form, which is as follows, viz. : — DECLARATORY STATEMENT FOR CASES WHERE THE LAND IS NOT SUBJECT TO PRIVATE ENTRY. I, of — — •, being have, on the day of , A. D. IS — , settled and im- proved the quarter, of section number -, in township number of range number , in the district of lands subject to sale at the land office at , and con- taining acres, which land has not yet been offered at public sale, and thus rendered subject to private entry; and I do hereby declare my intention to claim the said tract of land as a preemption light, under the provisions of said act of 4th September, 1841. Given under my hand, this day of , A. D. 18 — . In presence of — — . . When the above declaration is filed, there will he issued from the survey or general's office a certificate similar to the subjoined, viz. : — No. Surveyor Gexeral’s Office, _K. T. 1 certify that — — has this day filed in my office a notice in accordance with the 12th section of the act establishing the Office of the Surveyor Geueral of Kanzas and N e- braska, and granting preemption rights to actual settlers for the quarter of sec- tion number in township number in range number east of the 6th Principal Meridian in Territory. , Surveyor General of Kanzas and Nebraska, To quiet the fears of those who apprehend that all of the desirable por- tions of the territory have been, or in a short time will be, secured, it may 208 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OR be sufficient to say that there are millions of acres from which farm lots may now be selected, and that the quantity of land open to preemption is sufficient to accommodate 75,000 families, embracing half a million of indi- -viduals. It contains an area of 114,798 square miles ; it is 3 times as large as Ohio, and 14 times the size of Massachusetts. It is capable of being divided into 10 states, representing, in number of square miles, Maine, Ver- mont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and South Carolina. Although, therefore, the farm lots in the immediate vicinity of, perhaps for miles around Lawrence, and some other of the earlier settlements, may be, and probably are, ere this, secured, there is a plenty of as good ones awaiting new comers. Let them found other New England or rather liberty-loving settlements of a similar character. To effect this requires neither magic nor supernatural power ; New England energy, industry, and perseverance, seconded by the efforts of true sons of liberty, who went forth from various sections of the Union, brought the one, and can bring others into existence. Various sites for such settlements have been selected, and on application will be designated by tlie company’s agents. 7 Vood and Timber. — To the oft made inquiry, Is there an abundance of timber in the territory ? the answer must be modified somewhat according to the hailing-place of the interrogator. If he be from Maine, we should reply, no ; if from Illinois, we should answer, there is a fair supply. In other words, there is not an extreme scarcity, and there is far from an over- abundance of wood; sufficient can be procured on reasonable terms for all ordinary purposes. The advantage resulting from the limited supply is far greater than the disadvantage; for the consequence is a freedom from roots and stumps, the frequent occurrence of which, in many sections of our country, proves a serious inconvenience to the agriculturist, and requires for removal an expenditure of much time, money, and labor, in order to place the ground in an arable condition. The law of compensation is here found admirably exemplified, as the under supply of wood for fuel is more than made good by the vast deposits of bituminous coal known to exist in the territory ; the under supply of timber for building purposes is remedied by the abundance of lime and clay; the deficiency of fencing stuff' by suitable material for walls ; and in a few years, should the Osage orange be cultivated, which will grow luxuriantly, hedges will supersede the neces- sity of any other means for forming enclosures. Though timber, to a person from a lumber region, would seem scarce, the scarcity is not one that will necessarily be constantly on the increase as set- tlements multiply and the lands are reclaimed from their present state, in- asmuch as the limited growth arises, not from uncongeniality of climate, un- suitableness of soil, or absence of seed, but from the frequent prevalence, year after year, of vast prairie fires that sweep every thing before them, and thus stint or entirely prevent the growth of tree or shrub. Arrest the fires, and woodlands will soon abound. Small, however, as the proportion of wood- land is said to be, one of the company’s agents found no difficulty in con- tracting for 600 cords of standing wood at 25 cents per cord, and 600 logs of timber at 50 cents per log, the logs averaging half a thousand each. The price has somewhat advanced since, in consequence of the greatly increased demand ; still purchases can be made at fair rates. The Herald of Freedom of January 20, 1356, says, “ If those who listened to the reports of returning ^oncers last spring, that there was ‘ no timber in Kansas,’ could see the large logs brought to one of the mills in town the other day, measuring 5 feet in diameter, and cutting three 12 feet logs from the same tree, the smallest measuring 3 feet in diameter, they would conclude there was but little con- fidence to be placed in similar reports. It is true there is not an over-supply of timber here ; but if what we have was equally divided among the settlers, there would be enough for all practical purposes for many years, or until another crop can be grown.” THE GREAT WEST. 209 The principal varieties of wood are bass or linwood, cottonwood, hickory, oak, black walnut, ash, sycamore, hackberry, &c. Weather. ■ — This of course cannot reasonably be expected to be uniformly the same all years, for corresponding seasons. The same variations that are experienced elsewhere must be looked for and provided against in Kansas ; though we believe, as a general rule, the variations there will be less fre- quent and extreme than they are liable tQ be in this section of the country. There was a striking contrast in regard to the degree of coldness at Lawrence the last and preceding winter. At Lawrence during the winter of 1854-’55, there was not necessarily any severe or long-continued suffering from the inclemency of the weather. Governor Reeder stated that a fire was not needed the last of December, 1854; and a resident at the company’s set- tlement writes that “ on the 27th of December mechanics and others were comfortably at work in the open air without their coats, whilst the few idlers were basking in the sun like snakes in June.” There was not, how- ever, an entire freedom from cold and stormy weather. Up to the close of the year, there occurred but one fall of snow, which was to the depth of two inches, and disappeared in three days; in January, 1855, only five inches of snow fell. A gentleman, who had resided at one of the Missions for fifteen years, said the greatest depth of snow at any one time during that long period was six inches. During the season above alluded to, there was no frost in the ground before the close of December ; frost generally disappears by the beginning of March. According to thermometrical tables carefully kept at Lawrence by Dr. H. Clark, the average temperature in November, 1854, at sunrise, was 29° F. ; at 1 o’clock, P. JVL, 49A° ; and at \ of an hour past sunset 44£°. The av- erage in December, 1854, at the same periods, were 25^°, 49°, and 42° ; and in January, 1855, 23°, 39°, and 32^°. The Kanzas Herald of Freedom, under the date of February 10, 1855, says, “ But once has the mercury gone down to zero ; and by those long on the ground we are assured that this is an uncommon occurrence ; while the mean of all the observations will average only at the freezing point. Where, we would ask, could a more delightful temperature be found ? None who have designed to make Kanzas their homes need be deterred from coming from any fear in respect to extreme cold. When the time shall arrive that we shall be surrounded with the comforts and conveniences of the older states, such a thing as discomfort on this account will be unknown.” During the past winter ( 1855-’56J there has been some very severe weather in the territory. A portion of December and January proved colder than has any corresponding period for more than 20 years. Under date of De- cember 29, the editor of the Herald of Freedom writes, the thermometer has ranged between zero and 22° below that point for the last week, for which he cannot account, excepting upon the supposition “ that the weather table of the latitude of Quebec has been substituted for that of Kanzas.” Tire latter part of January, snow was six inches deep at Lawrence, and in the river bottoms, at some places, there were drifts several feet in depth ; the ground was frozen a foot and a half deep, and the river was covered with ice of the same thickness. By the latest accounts received, the rigor of winter had abated.* * Lest seme individuals, forgetful of their own recent experience here, should im agine Kanzas a second Siberia, and the reports heretofore given of its climate high colored and deceptive, it may be well to state that the past winter has been an ex- tremely rigorous one throughout the Union, aud in Italy and various other parts of Europe celebrated for a mild climate. In Philadelphia, the coldness of the month of January was S° below the average for the last 3.0 years. At Meadville, Pa., January 25, the thermometer fell to 30° below zero. So cold has it been in South Carolina, which has IS* 210 THE GARDEN OP THE WORLD, OR The winters are, notwithstanding, usually mild, and there is rarely suf- ficient snow for sleighing. A gentleman of high respectability told the writer that soon after he took up his residence near Iianzas, he purchased an excellent new sleigh, which he used a few times that winter, and before another opportunity occurred (several years subsequently) the .vehicle was so far decayed as to be utterly unserviceable. On the subject of winter weather we have dwelt at some length, as nu- merous inquiries have been and are constantly being made in regard to it. We will briefly glance at the other seasons. Our acquaintance with Kanzas, writes Mr. Brown, ranges through seven and a half months, com- mencing with the middle of November, 1854. Those months, with the ex- ception of April, have been all we could have desired. ApriJ, owing to the high winds that prevailed, (which was also true in other sections of the country,) proved very unpleasant. June was one of the most lovely months ever known. In July the range of the thermometer was from 90° to 100°, between the hours of 10 A. M. and 3 P. M. ; although, from the preva- lence of gentle winds, the temperature was much cooler to the senses than is above indicated. However hot may be the weather through the day, it is refreshingly cool and invigorating in the night; so that, indeed, a blanket is not unusually very acceptable. May, June, and July are pronounced “model months.” In August there were just rain and warmth enough to make a healthy and fertile country ; during the hottest days, the thermom- eter ranged between 90° and 94°. September was a “most lovely month” with the exception of the first two or three days, and the last six, when the wind was rather higher than usual, and the atmosphere cold and damp. October, from the 1st to the 20th, was generally pleasant and beautiful. From the 20th to the 25th, high north and north-west winds prevailed, the thermometer through the day standing below the freezing point ; from that time to the 10th of November, excepting one day, it was so mild and pleas- ant that “workmen were constantly engaged out of doors, and the masons were busy erecting composite walls, which cannot be built during freezing weather. But little rain fell, and only a few flakes of snow were seen in the air, which melted before reaching the ground. “Taking the month as a whole, we are not conscious of having experienced one so mild and pleasant.” Rain. — The annual fall of rain is under 30 inches. The rainiest pe- riod usually is from May 10 to June 10; during which, and at all times when severe rain storms occur, the roads are somewhat heavy, the creeks troublesome to ford, and travelling becomes tedious. There is very little rain in midsummer or autumn; sometimes, indeed, scarcely as much as is desirable for farming purposes. During the rainy period very few days pass by without the sun being seen, at least for a short time. usually been supplied with ice from New England, that some persons have cut and stored away tlieir own ice. In Mobile, on January 22, the mercury stood at 25°, and ice on the shady sides of the streets gave no indication of thawing. In New Orleans ice formed on the canals and in the gutters au inch thick, and in exposed situations much thicker. Water in cisterns was frozen in the faucets, so that it could not be drawn, and icicles were hanging around; fires and overcoats, and warm coverings at night., were in great demand. In Texas, on the upper Brazos, the thermometer stood at 1° degree below zero; cat- tle were dying, and several travellers had perished from the severity of the cold. Simi- lar instances might be adduced sufficient to fill many pages, were it necessary. As with the land, so has it been with the water. Long Island Sound has been closed; the western rivers blocked with ice ; the Mississippi, for all purposes of navigation, has been shut its entire length ; even the inhabitants of the “ briny deep” have been suf- ferers; the Nantucket Inquirer of January 23 advises us the excessive cold weather has been particularly severe upon the eels on the coast, hundreds of bushels of which nave been driven ashore and raked up on the beach. THE GREAT WEST. 211 Provisions. — There has been no deficiency of these, for in Lawrence, as elsewhere, the demand produced a supply, by prompting those residing on the borders o ' the territory to bring of their abundance to the settlement, and the competition was sufficient to keep prices reasonable. This undoubtedly will hold true at other settlements. After the first year or two the settlements will, not only supply themselves, but have a surplus to dispose of. A market for all such surplus may, for years to come, be found near at hand, inasmuch as thousands are passing through that region every year along the California, Santa Fe, and Great Salt Lake City routes, all of whom require more or less supplies ; besides, the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers, and soon a line of railroads, will afford facilities for reaching other markets. Modes of Conveyance. — Vehicles are very frequently passing between Rauzas City and Topeka, by which means those who intend locating in the vicinity of said towns will be conveyed there for about $4 the passage. Per- sons and parties destined for other sections of the territory may engage con- veyance at Kanzas City, or will probably adopt the course pursued by some who have preceded them, viz., those who intend to be farmers will .pur- chase their teams, and thus afford means for taking along the baggage of all their associates. There is a regular line of stages between Kanzas City and Lawrence, also between Leavenworth and Lawrence, and Kanzas City and Osawatomie. In the course of the season it is expected that one or more steamboats and flat boats, constructed for the purpose, will ply on the Kanzas River, as- cending 150 miles or more, according to the state of the water and the en- couragement extended to the enterprise. We consider that no more profitable business could be engaged in than that of transporting freight to the various settlements on Kanzas River. It is true that the state of the river during a large part of the boating season of 1855 seems to militate against such an opinion. That season, however, was an extraordinary one, the Kaw River being, throughout the period, lower than it had been known to be for twenty-five years ; and the cause which produced this also seriously affected the Missouri and other Western Rivers, viz., the small quantity of ice and snow in the mountains the pre- ceding winter. The great abundance of both the past winter gives prom- ise of a good state of navigation the coming season. Competent judges inform the writer that the Kaw River will, on an average, be navigable, at least as far as Lawrence, three years out of four, through the greater part of the Missouri River season ; when not navigable, the boat could be remu- neratively employed on the Missouri, conveying flour up or grain down. To insure a profitable business, attention to several points is absolutely requi- site : the boat must be of very light draught ; the captain must be an ex- perienced, sober, active, and energetic man ; and the pilot must possess and bring into practice strict temperance principles. Accommodations in the Territory. — It was originally intended to estab- lish receiving houses at the principal places, for the temporary iccommoda- tiorf of new comers. This was done at Lawrence. But the necessity for them is in a great measure superseded by the opening oj boarding houses at the settlements. Were it, however, otherwise, not being constructed on a locomotive principle, settlers ought not and probably -would not be so un- reasonable as to expect to meet with them every where throughout that vast region ; neither are they requisite in a large majority of cases, (however convenient,) inasmuch as all who go out in the spring and summer, if industrious, will have time to provide themselves with shelter, prior to the ensuing winter. The quickest, cheapest, and most comfortable way of se- curing shelter, at the outset, is to take along tents. These should be pro- cured on the way out, at St. Louis. One of sufficient size to lodge four or five individua s may' be f ad for from $8 to $10. 212 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OR At Lawrence the compan) r has erected a commodious stone hotel, 50 by 70 feet, three stories high, and a basement; this will accommodate a very large number of individuals and families. It is said to be the finest struc- ture of the kind west of St. Louis. Families. — Whether or not to take one’s family along, or go ahead and prepare the way for it, depends on many circumstances, varying greatly in different cases, a knowledge of which is essential satisfactorily to decide the question. Where the wife is feeble, has an infant or several young children, or from any cause cannot lend a helping hand, she had better remain behind until the new home is provided for her ; or, if taken along, she had better be boarded at the nearest convenient place to the spot selected for a location. If, on the other hand, the woman is the man, or is in truth a helpmate, and can cheerfully submit to roughing it for a while, if the children be of an age and character suited to prove serviceable, let them be taken along. If families remain back, it will be unnecessary to return for them, as there will always be some one going out under whose charge they can be placed. Board. — This can be obtained at boarding houses in Kanzas City, Mo., and.at Lawrence, Topeka, Osawatomie, Manhattan, Leavenworth, and Coun- cil City, K. T., and perhaps at some of the Missions, for from $3 to $4 per week. At hotels it will be much higher ; probably about $7 per week. Employment. — Work is not guaranteed by the company to any one ; but wherever settlements already are, or hereafter may be started, good mechan- ics will find employment at remunerative prices — particularly carpenters, masons, blacksmiths, harness makers, brick makers, &c. Governor Reeder wrote, in December, 1854, — “ This is a most lovely and promising country. There is no finer under the sun, and next summer it will be a rich harvest for all kinds of building mechanics and laborers. Last season stoue masons and carpenters got $2 25 and §2 50 a day ; laborers, $1 25 and $1 50. A legion of them will be needed early in the spring and all summer. If you have any to spare, send them along. We shall pay out in the territory near a mil- lion of dollars in building, and a man can be earning the highest wages and getting a good farm at SI 25 per acre at the same time. The government alone will spend $10i),000 or $150,000 in stone buildings at Fort Kiley. The stone mason, carpenter, brick maker, brick layer, plasterer, laborer, lime burner, &c., can lay the foundation of a fortune here the first year. Send them on ; 1 know they will not repent it. We have as yet had nothing 1 would call winter, and I doubt if it will be any colder. Spring opens about the 1st of March, and mechanics, &c., should be here at that time. There are some twenty towns laid out, the greater part of which must be built up, to say noth- ing of farm houses, & c.” As already suggested, the company advises no one entirely destitute of means to go out at this early period ; individuals who can command the requisite funds (which, indeed, are but small) to sustain them the first year, in other words until a crop is raised, or employment is sure, can go in per- fect safety, and unquestionably should better their condition by going ; others may find sufficient work to supply means, but it is premature for a very large number of such to go, although thus far the supply of laborers has not kept pace with the demand ; men of determined energy, great self- reliance, industrious and temperate habits, who are not easily disheartened, and whose indomitable perseverance will enable them to surmount such obstacles as the settlers of new regions will be obliged to encounter, though less perhaps in Kanzas than in most unreclaimed regions, such need not hesitate to immigrate, though dependent solely on their hands and daily exertions for a livelihood; all others, who are thus destitute, should “ bide their time.” Climate* and Diseases. — “The only objection we have found to the climate of Kanzas, thus far,” (says the Herald of Freedom,) “is the heavy winds, which usually blow from one to three days at a time over the prairies, * Sdiuo remarks bearing on this will be found under the head of Weather. We now speak of it in relation to its healthfulness THE GREAT WEST. 218 making it rather disagreeable to be exposed out of doors. We think the wind and storms are not more violent than in Western Pennsylvania and Eastern Ohio.” Professional men pronounce the climate a remarkably healthy one, ad- mirably adapted to those having a tendency to diseases of the lungs. It is, in a great measure, free from thaC pest of, many western places, intermit- tents, or fever and ague, (chills and fever, or shakes, as popularly termed;) cases can and do occur there, mainly, however, from imprudence, and prob- ably will be met with to some extent on the first breaking up of the lands ; but such is the character of the country, and consequent deficiency of ex- isting material, it is not probable that it will become one of the permanent diseases of the region. During the past summer (1855) this disease prevailed at most of the set- tlements, far more generally than had been anticipated. But, from a per- sonal examination of the locations, and an inquiry into tbehabits and modes of living of the sufferers, the writer is convinced that a very large propor- tion of the cases, with ordinary care, might have been avoided, and after their occurrence, with prudence and judicious remedial management, might have been promptly cured. It should not be forgotten that, during the period referred to, exciting and predisposing causes were more active and virulent than usual, as is evident from the fact that various Indian tribes in Kanzas Territory and elsewhere reported a greater prevalence of the disease than had occurred for many years previously ; and from the additional facts that it raged with unwonted violence in those sections of the west usually afflicted with it, and that it also appeared in many quarters (as in the interior of Ohio) where it never before manifested itself. It is said that this disease, when it attacks Indians, yields more readily to medicines than when whites are the sufferers. Prior to the appearance of the cholera, a period of six years elapsed with- out a single death occurring, to the knowledge of Dr. Lykins,* between Kanzas City, Mo., and the region of the Big Biue, in the vicinity of Fort Riley, a distance of 125 miles west. From October to August, previous to the irruption of that disease, there was an almost complete immunity from sickness. The most sickly period is in April and May, when bowel complaints, having a typhoid tendency, prevail. Most sickness in the fall occurs from the middle of August to the middle of September, and then bilious remittents and intermittents occur ; some seasons, typhoid fever makes its appearance, which it did last fall, for the second time, only, in twelve or fifteen years. A large portion of tire cholera cases of which we hear so much, particularly on the western waters and at the river towns, result from gross imprudence, as is evident from the fact that from two thirds to three fourths of them break out early in the week, i. e. after the excesses indulged in Saturday nights and on Sundays. In winter a few coughs and colds, and some cases of pneumonia or lung fever, are met with, but little else. Cost of Building. — This, of course, must vary according to the material used, the size and style of the house, &c. The main aim, at first, when so many important matters will require attention, should be to put up a cheap, temporary shelter. A tent costing from $8 to $15 will accommodate five or six persons tolerably well. A stone house somewhat similar to the concrete form may be built for from 12£ to 14 cents the cubic foot. A house thus constructed, a story and a half high, will cost, ready for occupancy, from $300 to $500; a permanent log house of the same dimensions, from $100 * To this gentleman we are under great obligations for his unceasing kindness, and his assiduous professional attendance, during a period of six weeks, whilst we were confined with a severe attack of typhoid fever. We with much pleasure avail of this opportunity to recommend him to all who may need the services of a kind and compe- tent physician. 214 TIIE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OR to $250 ; one suitable for transient occupancy, from $50 to $100 ; the for- mer would require the labor of four hands for two weeks — the last, the same number for one week. In all cases avoid lying immediately on the damp ground or green grass. Where material car. be had, — and it is difficult to conceive where it cannot, — a flooring should be laid at once, no matter how rough and rude it be. At all events el?vate the resting-place above both. By neglect of this simple precaution much unnecessary sickness and suffering have been endured. The writer visited several tenements whilst in the territory where the grass under the bedding was rank with mould, and j'et the inmates could not con- ceive why they were racked with pains more than their neighbors. Avoid building in the low bottoms, on the banks of the streams, or among the tim- ber on the borders ; the more elevated the site, the less liability to sickness. The Kanzas Tribune recommends a puncheon flooring, which the editor thus describes : — “ It is made by splitting a log in flat pieces, hewing one side to a plain surface, and notching the other down to fit sleepers. Small logs are sometimes nearly split in two, making large slabs, while larger ones are split in three or four pieces. After splitting the pieces, each end is laid on a piece of timber, in which are placed two pins to hold the puncheon on its edge, and thus it is hewed in the same manner as any other piece of timber, and turning it down, the edges are squared. After laying down a floor of this kind, the surface is frequently made even with an adze. It is a very substantial floor, and can be made quite handsome. These were the kind of floors almost univer- sally used in the log cabins of the west. There is no use in being without a floor where there is timber enough to make one.” Time of commencing Farm Work , its Cost , the Kind and Value of Crops , §c. — On these points we avail of information furnished for publication by an individual bitterly and uncompromisingly opposed to the present New England movement, and who has exerted himself to throw all the impedi- ments and discouragements possible in the way of those who contemplate emigrating from the free states ; when such a person is compelled to make so flattering statements as the subjoined, there is no necessity for our friends offering any extra inducements to freemen to become citizens of Kanzas. It may be well to premise that the cost of hiring prairie land broken up will be about $3 per acre; and we understand that individuals, suitably prepared and acquainted with the business, purpose pursuing it as a vocation ; so that what General Stringfellow deems an insuperable diffi- culty in the way of New England and western farmers, can easily be obvi- ated^; and where no one can be hired, resort will be had to a very common practice — of which he seems ignorant — of doubling or trebling teams, and thus mutually aiding one another. He says, — “The greatest difficulty is in the command of the requisite labor, the hands and team necessary to break and enclose the land. To one who has this it is far easier and cheaper to make a farm of 100 acres or more in the prairie than in the timber, Indeed, in Missouri it is deemed better and cheaper in the end to make a farm of 300 acres in the prairie, and to haul the rails 10 miles, than to clear timbered land. “The plough used will turn over from 20 to 26 inches, and one team will break from two to two and a half acres per day. The cattle require no other feed, but will keep fat on the grass while at work. The proper season for breaking prairie is from the 1st of May to the middle of July; up to which time corn can be planted. The corn is dropped in the furrow by a boy who can sit on the plough, and is covered by the plough. It will usually mature and make good corn if planted as early as the 1st of June. That planted later will make good stock feed. “ Prairie may be broken up as late as the middle of August, and will, if sown, yield a . wheat crop equal to any that can be afterwards grown on the ground. “To one who has stock to feed, the crop of corn on the sod is always worth the cost of breaking, and will, in a good season, pay for breaking and enclosing. “ In the second year the farm is in perfect condition. There are no stumps, but the eod is rotted, and your field, clear of weeds and grass, is light and mellow as an ash- band. In the prairie, too, a hand can cultivate one third more than iu the timber. “I ought here to say that both in Missouri and Kanzas the winters are always dry, and with but little snow, and hence han s tre able to work during the entire winter.” THE GREAT WEST. 215 As regards yield of crops, the same writer makes the fol cw.ng statement to show the great profit of slave labor; and we will not insult the good sense of our friends by doubting for a moment that a freeman can accom- plish as much as a bondman. He says. — ‘•Lying in the same latitude, immediately west, and alongside of Missouri, the soil and climate of Kanzas cannot differ materially from those of Missouri. I am inclined to believe that Kanzas will prove even healthier than Missouri, there being less low, marshy land in Kanzas. “ * * * Before leaving home I procured from intelligent farmers in Platte, a coun- try bordering on Kanzas, a statement showing the amount of land which one hand can cultivate, with the yield per acre, and the market jjrice of the products at hornet I have nc hesitation in attesting its correctness. Amount of Land to Hand , and Yield per Acre. Hemp, 7 to 8 acres, 800 to 1200 pounds. Corn, 10 to 15 acres, 10 to 20 barrels. Wheat, 10 to 15 acres, 20 to 45 bi shels. Oats, 10 to 15 acres, 30 to 50 “ Value of Products at Home. Hemp, tons, at $8 per ton, $200 00 Corn, 100 barrels, at $1 per barrel, 100 00 Wheat, 5 acres, 100 bushels, at SO cents per bushel, 80 00 Oats, 5 acres, 150 bushels, at 30 cents per bushel, 45 00 Total least yield, at lowest prices, $425 00 Hemp, 4jt tons, at $130 per ton, 585 00 Corn, 300 barrels, at $2 per barrel 000 00 Wheat, 5 acres, 225 bushels, at $1 per bushel, 225 00 Oats, 5 acres, 250 bushels, at 40 ceuts per bushel, 100 00 Greatest yield, at highest prices, $1510 00 ‘‘This will, doubtless, seem an extravagant estimate; yet the quotations of the mar- kets will show that the maximum prices are less than the present market prices. Hemp has sold during the past season for $150 per ton. Wheat is worth $1 25 per bushel, and corn $3 per barrel. The yield, too, is often greater than the highest. But it is not less true that the greatest yield and highest price are not often together. My object is rather to show the least yield and the lowest price. “ To a distance of 150 miles west, the soil is but little if any inferior to that of Mis- souri. Its great staples must be hemp and tobacco. * * * I need hardly say that the graius aud grasses will all succeed where hemp and tobacco can be grown. “I have said that Kanzas was not suited to the poor man; I only intended to refer to those who design to till the ground. [ ! ! ! ] But to the poor mechanic it offers great inducements. To all carpenters especially, and to stone and brick masons, it will give constant employment and high wages. The rudest beginner receives $1 50 per day; good workmen, as journeymen, receive in regular employment from $2 to $3 per day. Their expenses are light, the cost of living being low.” It has been so often alleged against the company and its agents that they have portrayed in glowing and deceptive colors the beauty and fertility of Kanzas Territory, and thereby allured people to migrate thither, who, had the truth been fitly^spoken, would never have wandered from their homes ; and as the allegation is made, not only by those openly opposed to our movements, by many in our very midst, who covertly side with the enemy, or are led astray by the disheartening statements of returned discontented ones, we subjoin the opinions of two other writers, whose character and standing are vouched for by pro-slavery presses. The first extracts subjoined are from a letter written by a gentleman at Platte City, Mo., November 30, 1855, and addressed to a friend in Georgia. That there may be no mistake as regards his hostility to us, we copy a por- tion of his second paragraph. “ I live in sight of Kanzas, My fir st two children were born there. You are aware 216 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OR that on the passage of the Kansas Nebraska bill New England rose in her might, formed aid societies, and vomited forth on us all the dirt and filth of her degraded fanaticism.” After much in the same style, he declares, — “ As far as health, climate, and profit of negro labor are concerned, this is better than any country in the Union. It is true we have hot and cold, wet and dry weather, bat I never saw the country where a man can be more independent, and make his bread and meat with less capital than here. * * * Ten or twelve furrows run in corn will make ten barrels to the acre. One thousand pounds of hemp is a common crop to the acre. Wheat and oats do well; oceaus of grass and swarms of cattle, and withal good markets for every thing. “This is the stake that poor, barren New England contends for and hates to surren- der; and it remains for the south to say. Your blood and treasure paid for half of the seven territories which at present belong to the United States. Has not the south manliness to take possession of one ? And if you don’t get Kauzas, which one can you get? None, none. * * * “ We want your moving population to come here. We want your poor and rich, who are inclined to move at all, to come to Kauzas. and while they thus secure this glorious territory to the south, and the Union to us all, take my word as a man of honor, they will reap a rich harvest in their own personal advancement.” Our other witness is the Hon. Sterling G. Cato, one of the territorial judges, who holds his appointment under the administration of President Pierce. In a letter of recent date, addressed to his brother residing at Eu- faula, Alabama, he says, — “ The people here are quiet and orderly, sharp and intelligent, a little rough in man- ners, but warm-hearted and cordial. This is as fine a country as any on the face of the earth, and the profits of its productions would far exceed those of the cotton fields of tlie south. All kinds of grain, grass, clover, and hemp yield a rich product. I have no doubt but that slave labor would yield in hemp, corn, and grain at least from thirty to forty dollars per acre annually. I have seen no poor land; it all seems to me richer than the best Chattahoochee bottom, and most of it just such land as in tho adjoining Missouri counties is now selling at from $20 to $50 per acre. Corn is now selling at twenty cents per bushel, and the product estimated at one hundred bushels an acre; and hemp crop (six tons per hand) at $140 per ton; and you see at once how labor is more productive here than at the south. It is impossible to give an adequate idea of the beauty and fertility of the soil and country; generally rolling, without a great deal of timber, but, as I understand, abounding in coal for fires and stone for building and fencing; good wells of water can be obtained any where, besides frequent streams running through the prairies.” To the preceding we would add, three of the best branches of business to engage in are wool growing, stock raising, and dairy farming, for which purposes there probably is not to be found a superior region ; and those who early embark in either will in a few years realize large fortunes as the fruits of their industry. Land Warrants. — The inquiry is often made of us, whether land warrants are or will be available in Kanzas ? We answer, if the holders of them are not or do not intend to become actual settlers, they cannot at present locate them either in Kanzas or Nebraska, for lands must first be surveyed, offered at public sale, and rendered subject to private entry, before they can thus be taken up. These warrants will, however, be received in payment for pre- emption claims. To holders, therefore, who are actual settlers, under the preemption law they will prove as good as money when pay day comes for securing their 160 acres of land.* The Indian trust lands will not be subject to land warrant locations, if government act in good faith, as by treaty they are to be sold for the benefit of the Indians. Fencing , fyc. — To fence with rails will cost about sixty cents per rod ; stone * These remarks will not apply to warrants issued under the act of 1850. THE GREAT WEST. 217 walls can be built for about one dollar per rod, and wbat is known in the territory as picket fence for forty cents per rod. Indians. — From the Indians, the original and rightful owners of the soil, the settler has nothing to fear, so long as in his intercourse with them he squares his conduct by the golden rule. The poor native has in times past suffered more, and now has far more to apprehend, from the white man than the white man from him. Most of those with whom the settlers will come in contact are in what we call a semi-civilized state ; they are not roving, “ wild Indians,” here to-day and there to-morrow, but have permanent loca- tions, cultivate the soil, raise some cattle, sow, and plant ; and from them, on fair terms, the immigrants may obtain vegetables, fencing stuff, &c. Many of these, particularly among the Shawnees, AVyandots, and the Delawares, are highly intelligent, and have a good common school education ; among them will be found active and shrewd business men ; some speak French and English almost as fluently as their native tongue, and among the females some may be met with who have received instruction in music and drawing. Twice in the course of his tour the writer had the pleasure of an interview with an individual, a Pottowattomie by birth and an Ottawa by adoption, who received a liberal education in one of the collegiate institu- tions of Western New York ; he is a worthy member of the church, and a philanthropist whose face is never averted from the needy nor door closed against the weary and way-worn traveller. Among most of the tribes, Protestant and Catholic missions have been established for many years, and accomplished much good. Until recently, the Friends and the Baptists have supported schools in the Shawnee Re- serve. It is a subject of great regret that at a time when, above all others, it is of the utmost importance that the principles of “ pure and undefiled religion ” should be inculcated, the Baptist Board, and we think the Friends, have abandoned their vantage ground, and left their former pupils and their descendants to go astray, or be subjected to the tender mercies of those who have not their welfare at heart. We must think those denominations have acted under wrong impressions, and that they will ere long renew their works of benevolence and Christianity. Towards this ill-fated race were the hand of friendship more frequently extended than the weapon of destruction levelled, were the policy of govern- ment one of peace^ather than of war, of civilization than of brutalization, or, what it threatens to be, of extermination, it would be far more to the credit of the-white man, and we should eventually be convinced of the erroneousness of the long prevalent opinion, that the red man is irre- claimable. This company has always enjoined upon its agents and upon settlers to avoid committing trespasses upon any of the Indian tribes. Pursuing this course, it has declined making locations at several desirable sites where towns have since been established by those less scrupulous, against whose incursions the Indian agents, their ostensible and legal guardians and pro- tectors, have raised no successful opposition. The company, it should be distinctly understood, is sending to Kanzas ; it knows neither north, south, east, nor west, to the exclusion of the re- mainder ; it is desirous of seeing the whole peopled with good men and true, who will maintain their own rights and respect those of others ; who, whilst they resolutely resist being encroached upon by the lawless and reckless, whencesoever they may come, will carefully refrain from committing unjust acts or uttering harsh epithets against others, simply for a difference of opinion ; who, save in extreqae cases, will rely for victory upon the teachings of the Bible and instructions of the ballot box, instead of the influence of the bottle and destructiveness of the musket ; discarding the bottle alto- gether, and reserving the musket as a dernier resort. Religion and Education. — At Lawrence there are several regularly con- stituted religious societies of various denominations, viz., Congregational* 218 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OR ists, Unitarians, Methodists, Baptists, and United Brethren. A free schoo' is established there, in which the ordinary branches are taught, and meas- ures are in train to found an academy for instruction in the higher branches An athenaeum has also been instituted, by members of which discussions are regularly held and lectures delivered. Connected with this institution is a public library. Sunday school libraries also exist there. All of these means, for securing and elevating the mental and moral con- dition of the community, have made considerable advancement, and will soon be in full operation at Topeka and the other settlements of the com- pany. The powerful influence for good exerted by these is clearly manifest. The writer met many on their way, in pursuit of a new home, who wished to be directed where they could find a Yankee settlement, giving, as a rea- son for the inquiry, that they wished to locate near one, being thus sure of a school for their children and of religious services on the Sabbath. In behalf of each and all, the secretary earnestly solicits contributions in money or books ; the former he will endeavor judiciously to convert into books ; of the latter almost every one has more or less, which, having done their mission here, will still prove of exceeding value, for a similar purpose, in our new settlements. If the secretary’s efforts are approved and seconded by our friends here, he will be enabled to transmit to the territory, by every party, a package the contents of which may prove of incalculable importance to our friends there. Game. ■ — • Game is quite abundant in some sections of the territory, though but little occurs in others. Several varieties of squirrels, ducks, geese, turkeys, prairie hens, &c., were seen by the writer. In the Neosho valley and other parts deer are found. Herds of buffalo were within sight from Fort Riley, while the writer was in that section, although the present regu- lar range of this animal, which is likely soon to become extinct, is farther west and north-west. The streams abound with gar, buffalo, whitefish, and a large variety of others. Arms. — Should they be taken along for protection against Indians, for hunting, &c. ? Our opinion of the red man has already been given, viz., as a general rule, if treated kindly and met as a man, he will behave like a man ; but if treated like a wild beast, you must expect him to conduct like one. Still, as impositions are constantly being practised on him, and tres- passes committed upon his rights, by vagabonds of our own race — of in- stances of which we ourselves have had repeated cognizance — it is not impossible, though hardly probable, that some roving bands from the dis- tant plains or fastnesses of the Rocky Mountains may, under exasperation, make their appearance on the borders ; and as “ an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” and “ discretion is the better part of valor,” it would be well to go prepared for such emergencies. Besides, it would be somewhat vexatious to a hungry man (and one who intends to be a pioneer must expect often to be a-hungered) to see game fleeting by him, which might have furnished him many a good meal, and be none the better for it, because, presuming there was no use for powder and ball, he went to his new home without them. Thus did not the hardy pioneers of the days of our ancestors. Moreover, wolves, rattlesnakes, and other reptiles of various forms, will be occasionally encountered, or be de- tected around the claims ; and although the former, like many enemies in human shape, who make much noise, are great cowards, and seldom attack one, excepting when they are sure of an advantage, it is advisable to be pre- pared to give them a warm reception. , Whether there may be any other use for arms, the writer, perhaps, is not qualified to judge ; but, in accordance with the old Latin maxim, that it is permitted to be taught by an enemy, he thinks it sufficient, and will prob- ably be perfectly satisfactory to inquirers, to adduce the opinion of the Hon. THE GREAT WEST. 219 David R. Atchison on this point. In a letter of very recent date, to a gen- tleman at the south, he says, — “ let your young men come forth to Missouri and Kanzas! Let them come -well armed, with money enough to support them for twelve months, and determined to see this thing out ! One hundred true men will he an acquisition ! The more the better. “ We want men — armed men. We want money; not for ourselves, but to support our friends who may come from a distance. “ Let your young men come on in squads, as fast as they can he raised, well armed. "We want none' hut true men.” Such is the advice of one who, we arq told, “ has occupied, for a quarter of a century at least, an eminently, high" position among the statesmen of the Union, and who, in the Senate of the United States, over which he pre- sided with so much satisfaction to that body, fairly earned a reputation of which few can boast.” The advice of such a one, on the present subject of inquiry, it would ill become us to gainsay. We cannot refrain from quoting this gentleman’s concluding sentiment, and most cordially reiterating his hope : — “ We hope that there will be an uprising of the people in every county and town in the state, and that while our young men will in hundreds respond to the call of Kan- zas, the old and the wealthy will give that aid which, if withheld, will keep from ‘ there ’ many a dauntless spirit, brave heart, and strong arm.” Size of Parties. — Parties, for their own comfort and convenience, should not exceed one hundred persons ; and a larger number the company does not advise to go at once ; neither is there a necessity for it, as at least weekly opportunities will be furnished ; indeed, one half that number would be still better. The capacity and accommodations of the Missouri River boats vary ; but a certain number cam be well cared for ; and the company discountenances any unreasonable crowding on board of those boats ; it possesses not the magic power, as some unreasonably think, of enlarging the boat’s capacity to correspond with a party’s wants or desires. The agents, therefore, are enjoined against countenancing or permitting, so far as they can exercise a control, one over the proper number from taking passage in any boat ; if a contrary course be persisted in, however, it must be at the risk of those who will not be advised, and not on the responsibility of the company. As, however, there will unquestionably he for some time a great rush, and parties will be very large, notwithstanding the advice of the company, every one who goes must be content to submit to various inconveniences, more especially in the boats and at the houses of entertainment where they may temporarily stop. Those who go out early in the spring will, of course, meet with more an- noyance than those who leave later ; but, on the other hand, they will have a greater choice as regards location, and will sooner enjoy the right of exer- cising the glorious privileges of freemen — a matter of great moment to them, and of vast moment to all who may subsequently become citizens of the territory. Temporary Organizations. — Parties are advised to pursue the course of those who went out last season, and form ou the route (whilst steamboat- ing it up from St. Louis, or previously) some temporary organization fcr the benefit of all. By doing this, and appointing committees to act for all, there will belittle danger of what many fear, that undue advantages will be taken of them by cattle and produce dealers at Kanzas City and elsewhere. Should imposi- tions be attempted, by deputing certain individuals of shrewdness and good judgment to go to the towns a little removed from the river borders and make the requisite purchases, sellers will soon find it for their interest to deal justly and act uprightly ; and none but fair prices will be demanded. In 220 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OR these cases, as in all others of doubt, take counsel of the company’s agents, as your and their interests are not antagonistic. Modes of Communication. — All letters sent to the care of Samuel C. Pomeroy, Esq., Kanzas City, Mo., will be forwarded, as opportunities offer, to the individual’s address. Those intended for Lawrence, Topeka, or Leavenworth, K. T., may be addressed direct, as a post office has been established at each of these places. In cases requiring more speedy com- munication, advantage can be taken of the telegraph, as an office is estab- lished at Kanzas City, by means of which intelligence may be speedily con- veyed to or received from all prominent points throughout New England, the Western, Middle, and Southern States. Company's Aid. — To correct an error that extensively prevails, it is well to state, what may be inferred from our introductory remarks, that the com- pany furnishes no direct pecuniary aid to individuals. Its main objects are not eleemosynary or charitable, in the ordinary acceptation of the word, but philanthropic. It has not the means to assist, nor, had it, could its officers devote the requisite time to investigating the merits of individual cases ; these must be left to the care of the local auxiliary leagues, which are recommended, if they extend a helping hand, to aid, not by gift, but by loan. The company’s means have been, and, if continued to them, will be, em- ployed to encourage the formation of settlements, and to advance the pros- perity and promote the welfare of the various communities that may be es- tablished ; in a word, to make, as far and as fast as possible, each place a.set- tlement of freemen, by introducing such conveniences, founding and encour- aging such institutions and establishments, as now characterize New Eng- land homes, and such as the true principles of freedom and the pure spirit of liberty invariably show are so essential to the perpetuity of good govern- ments, and prove absolutely requisite for securing and sustaining the great- est good of the greatest number. The company deals with persons as constituting communities ; the auxiliary societies or local leagues deal with them in their individual capacities. Sources of Information. Newspapers. — Those who are desirous of pro- curing a large amount of information at a small expense, and of being kept posted up on territorial affairs, should subscribe to the Kanzas Herald of Freedom, published weekly at Lawrence, K. T. ; the first volume, just com- pleted, contains a greater quantity of material of a practical character than is elsewhere to be found. The second volume was commenced on the ninth of the present month, (February;) this, therefore, is a favorable time for subscribing. By sending address and subscription ($2) to the secretary the paper will in due time be forwarded. THE GREAT WEST. 221 CONSTITUTION OF THE AMERICAN SETTLE- MENT COMPANY. The subscribers hereto, being desirous to form a company for the purpose of settling a tract of land in the Territory of ICanzas, in order to assist in making it a free state, and to found thereon a city, noth a municipal gov- ernment. and the civil, literary, social, moral, and religious privileges of the old free states, for the equal benefit of the members, have associated and formed, and do hereby associate and form themselves into a joint stock company, under the name of the “American Settlement Company,” and have adopted the following Articles for the government of said com- pany, and the management of its property, affairs, and concerns ; and here- by pledge themselves, each to the others, faithfully to observe and keep each and all the provisions of said Articles, viz. : — Art. 1. The capital of the company shall be divided into shares equal in number to the number of lots in the city hereinafter mentioned. The price of shares shall at first be fixed at five dollars, but may be raised by the board of directors. No person shall be allowed to purchase of the compa- ny more than six shares in one name. Only half the price shall be required to be paid on subscribing, except on the first share. Art. 2 The management of the affairs of the company shall be vested in a board of directors, the majority of whom shall be residents of the city of New York, or its vicinity ; and they shall have power to fill vacancies in their. own body, and to elect their own officers and agents. The officers shall be a president, vice president, secretary, treasurer, and general superintendent, who shall also be members of the board of directors. Art. 3. The members of the company shall be all such persons of good moral character as shall, with the consent of a director, subscribe for one or more shares of the stock, and comply -with the terms of payment, and sign this constitution. Art. 4. Minors may subscribe through their legal representatives. Art. 5. Certificates of subscriptions will be given, signed by the general superintendent, specifying the amount paid; and said certificates shall be assignable, such assignments conveying all the rights pertaining to the original certificates ; but any stockholder failing to pay the balance due on his or her stock within sixty days after the holder has been notified by the board, shall be liable to forfeit said stock and the amounts before paid on it. Art. 6. For each share held in accordance, with these provisions, the owner shall be entitled to one lot in the city hereinafter described, when apportioned, and to a share in the general property of the company; and on all questions to be decided by stockholders, shall be entitled to one vote. Art. 7- Any resident or non-resident of Kanzas may be a stockholder; but no person can be a member of the company without signing the consti- tution in person or by proxy, and holding stock. Art. 8. When a sufficient number of members are in Council City, and the lots shall have been surveyed and a map formed, the lots shall be dis- tributed to stockholders, by drawing, which shall take place in Council City, under the direction of one or more directors of the company, and at a public meeting of the members. Distributions will be made of the remain- ing lots under the direction of the board, and the secretary shall notify shareholders. Art. 9. It shall be the duty of the general superintendent to be in attend- ance at the office of the company, to receive subscriptions, answer letters, impart information, and transact the active business of the company. All moneys received by him shall be paid weekly to the treasurer ; but the presii 19 * 222 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OR dent or vice president may, as hereinafter provided in Artiele 11, countersign to his order on the treasury for incidental expenses in sums not exceeding one hundred dollars. A monthly statement of moneys received, paid over to the treasurer, and disbursed for incidental expenses, shall be presented at each regular meeting of the board. Art. 10. It shall be the duty of the secretary to keep the minutes of each meeting, to examine with the president, approve the accounts presented by the general superintendent, and to safely file and keep all papers and books of the company. Art. 11. It shall be the duty of the treasurer to receive and disburse the funds of the company, under the direction of the board, and he shall in no case pay out such funds except to the draft of the general superintendent, countersigned by the president or vice president. He shall also give a bond satisfactory to the board for the security of the moneys in his charge ; and present reports monthly to the board. Art. 12. The money received from the sale of shares shall be used to secure, legally, a tract of about two miles square, in the Territory of Kanzas, at an eligible point on or near the Santa Fe Road, to survey, lay out, and improve the same as a city, which shall be called “ Council City,” to erect thereon public buildings for the temporary accommodation of mem- bers on moderate terms, to obtain all the objects of the company, to pay the salaries of officers and agents, and the incidental expenses. Art. 13. The general plan of the city shall be as follows, subject to any necessary alterations by the board : A park of 80 acres near the centre, and smaller public grounds for health and ornament in other parts. The av- enues and streets running towards the cardinal points, the former not less than one hundred feet wide, and the latter not less than seventy-five. Washington Avenue, on the Santa Fe Road, being at least one hundred and fifty feet. The streets shall be three hundred feet apart, and the lots from fifty to seventy-five feet wide, and one hundred and fifty deep. Trees to be planted, as soon as convenient, in all the streets, squares, and avenues. Art. 14. One lot out of every fifty shall be appropriated by the board for the support and benefit of free schools and other institutions of learning, in which the Bible shall be daily read. And other lots maybe appropriated for the support of lyceums, libraries, societies of beneficence, arts, or other public institutions appropriate to an orderly, virtuous, temperate, and re- fined American community. Art. 15. Any member shall be entitled to the counsel of the company’s agents in St. Louis and in Council City, in selecting, laying out, and record- ing 160 acres, and to the countenance of the members in securing his or her claim according to law. Art. 16. No member or officer shall have power to bind the company by any contract, or to render them liable for any purpose, or to any extent, unless specially authorized so to do by the board ; and no member or officer shall be liable for or to the company, or any member beyond the amount of his or her stock. The board shall not render the company liable beyond the amount of funds in hand. Art. 17. This agreement shall last until the lots are distributed and le- gally conveyed by deed, and all the general business completed ; and then the officers shall resign their trust, and. the board shall transfer all property of the company to such person or persons as may be appointed by a vote of two thirds of the members present at a meeting in Council City, publicly called for that puroose at least one month previously. Art. 18. In case of any dissension between any of the stockholders, or between any of them and the board, or any of the officers, the questions shall be submitted for final decision to arbitrators appointed in the cus- tomary manner. THE GREAT WEST. 223 Persons at a distance wishing to purchase and become members of the American Settlement Company will copy the following form, filling up the blanks with name, date, place of residence, as , 18 . Know all men by these presents, that, having read and approved the Con- stitution of the American Settlement Company, I hereby authorize their general superintendent as my true and lawful attorney, to affix my signa- ture to the same. Route from Westport , Missouri, to Council City, Kanzas, by the Santa Fe Road. — To Indian Creek, 10 miles ; Cedar Creek, 10 miles ; Bull Creek, 12 miles; Black Jack, 8 miles; Willow Spring, 13 miles; Hundred and Ten Creek, 25 miles ; Switzler’s Creek, 9 miles ; boarding house on Council City summit, 2 miles. Total 89 miles. Distances from Council City.- — Kanzas River, north, 18 miles ; Nebraska Line, about'lOO miles ; Lawrence, north-east, 40 miles ; South Line, about 100 miles ; Council Grove, 34 miles ; Fort Riley and Pawnee, about 60 miles, north-west. Extracts of Letter's from Council City. — - “ Timber is scarce in all this part of Kanzas ; but there is more here than elsewhere, and sufficient to build with. I don’t see that a bad prairie claim can be taken any where, the soil is so excellent. The near timber claims are taken up ; and at the rate they go on, in six months all the near claims will be taken up. Hedges will be used for fencing. The Osage orange will grow in three years. We find plenty of excellent coal, brick, clay, and limestone quarries, which will enable people to get along very comfortably. They must bear in mind that they will need but little out-building out here, and not near as much fuel as at the east. We have had it cold, but only once at zero, though the winds sweep strong. “After the prairie has been broken up by the prairie plough and several yoke of oxen, the corn is dropped in, and nothing is to be done till harvest. In after years, an ordinary team and one hand will raise more than double on new land in the east, there being no stumps, roots, or stones ; and the soil is some of the richest in the world.” New Yorkers in Kanzas. — The wife of a New Yorker, who recently went out to join her father in Kanzas, writes back from the New York settlement known as Council City to her husband a letter from which we quote : — “ There are coal and wood on your claim, though I was told before coming that there was neither wood, water, nor people here. I find plenty of every thing, though provisions are rather high. We have a cow and plenty of milky and the children are hearty and happy. We live in father’s little log cabin, but he will commence our house next week. The beauty of the scenery surpasses my powders of description. I have just been around our claim, and I like it. Come to us soon, for you can have plenty of work here. Every thing is to be bought, though goods are rather dear. 1 had not hoped to find things so comfortable.” PROPOSALS AND PLANS. Anxious to do something practical for the speedy settlement of Kanzas, a number of gentlemen, (September, 1854,) formed themselves into a joint stock association, under the name of THE AMERICAN SETTLEMENT COMPANY; the object of this company being to found in Kanzas a large and flourish ing city, one that would claim the attention and patronage of all interested in the growth and prosperity of that beautiful territory. After an extensive and careful explot Won of the country, by a committee of seven intelligent 224 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OR gentlemen, representing the States of New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, and after their unanimous report in favor of the location, the board of directors decided on commencing operations at once, and to create a city in Kanzas which, should become the centre of most important business and social interests, and offer inducements not otherwise presented. For this object, late in October, 1854, a small party of settlers were sent to the site selected, to which was given the name of “ Council City.” This city occupies a site on the great Santa Fe road, a thoroughfare as much travelled as most of the roads of the old states ; well adapted both for the farmer and merchant, owing to the great home market for live stock, produce, and goods to the Santa Fe traders, as well as to the settlers. There are now within and adjacent to the city upwards of six hundred inhabitants, a steam saw mill, a grist mill, shops, stores, schools, &c. A weekly news- paper, “ The Council City Banner,” is to be issued, commencing September, 1855, price $2 per annum. Council City is laid out with streets seventy-five feet wide, and avenues one hundred and fifty feet ; size of lots, with but few exceptions, seventy-five feet by one hundred and fifty feet. There are several large parks, varying in size from ten to fifty acres. (For plan of city, apply at the company’s office.) Its location is in one of the best watered regions of the territory, bounded on three sides bytwo finestreams, (Dragoon and Switzler Creeks,) abounding with fish, and bordered with excellent timber, coal, and limestone of the finest quality ; also, beds of clay and sand are found in, on, and around the city site. In a word, the location of Council City and its adjacent country has been pro- nounced by disinterested persons, in point of health, richness of soil, minSfal wealth, mercantile, mechanical, and farming advantages, superior to that of any other portion of Kanzas. Terms. — On and after September 15, 1855, price of shares Ten Dollars. The first share to be paid for in full ; on every subsequent share the half only will be demanded, the balance being subject to call at sixty days’ notice. Each share will entitle the holder to a city lot, and by signing the constitu- tion, (in person or by proxy,) he becomes a member of the company, and entitled to a pro rata share in all the property of the company, and is also entitled to a vote. (See constitution.) In order to prevent speculation, no person can subscribe for more than six shares in his or her name. No sub- scriber will be entitled to a lot until his share is paid in full. The whole amount of money derived from the sale of stock, after defray- ing the current expenses of the company, has been expended in improving the city. It should not be forgotten that, in addition to the ownership of city lots and other company property, each settler can claim, under the United States laws, the right, by preemption, to one hundred and sixty acres of land, for which he will pay the government price, (§1 25 per acre,) but will not, probably, be called upon to pay in less than two years. The great favor with which the “Homestead Bill” is received gives strong hopes of its passage this Congress, in which case the land will be free to actual settlers. Our agents are now in Council City, in charge of the property, and ready iO afford counsel and cooperation to members, on their arrival at the spot. Temporary accommodations have been prepared, by the erection of a boarding house, &c. “ In union there is strength,” is a proverb which applies forcibly to pioneers ; and every person who unites with the “ American Settlement Company ” may expect to realize its force when he arrives in Kanzas. Many a man who went ten years ago to the west is still surrounded by woods, with but little prospect of arise in his property; while others, more fortu- nate, have made themselves speedily rich, from the simple fact that imme- diately around them others have settled, and thus they have mutually increased the value of their lands. In this and other important respects the ‘American Settlement Company ” embraces great advantages, which can- THE GEE AT WEST. 225 not be here set forth, but are palpably evident to every practical man, and which are but seldom offered to the western settler. Climate . — Being in the latitude. of Virginia, the summers are warm, though gradually growing cooler as we approach the Rocky Mountains. As we ascend the Kanzas River, and also on the prairies, the heat is tempered by cool breezes from the west. The months of May and June may properly be termed the wet season ; while the latter end of the summer and early autumn are generally dry. * The winters are short, commencing usually about the month of Novem- ber, or first of December, and ending in February : although at times the weather is severely cold, it seldom continues so more than two days at any one period. Generally speaking, the weather is mild and pleasant ; pecu- liarly favorable to the raising of stock, owing to the mildness of the climate. Cattle can subsist on the prairies, and on bottom lands throughout the winter, requiring no shelter, and but little stock, corn, or hay. Snow sel- dom falls to the depth of three inches, and it is very soon melted by the sun. It is not uncommon to plough the prairies in January. The climate of Kanzas is healthy, the air being pure and dry. But a small portion of the territory is subject to malaria. Soil. — The soil varies in different sections of the country, and may be classed under two different heads : 1st. That contiguous to the rivers, termed “bottom lands,” consisting of dark alluvial soil, equal in fertility to any in the world, and suitable for the cultivation of hemp, tobacco, corn &c. In particular sections of the country the land is subject to overflow 7 . 2d Table land of rich loam, producing great crops of corn, wheat, buckw T heat, tobacco, oats, Irish and sweet potatoes, &e. 3d. High rolling prairie, with soil and productions similar to those of the table land. George Walter, the general superintendent of “The American Settle- ment Company.” will give full information relative to the country, and make arrangements for sending persons or families to Kanzas, at less than the usual rates, and will furnish members of this company with letters of intro- duction to the agent at St. Louis, w'ho will procure passages on first class boats to Kanzas, aid in making purchases, &c., and to the agent in Council Citv, who will advise in the selection of farms, &c., free of charge. Persons at a distance may subscribe for shares by mail, by remitting the necessary amount, with name, age, residence, place of birth, occupa- tion, religious denomination, and, if going to Council City, the amount of capital taken by them to Kanzas. Subscriptions are invited, throughout the Union, to aid the erection of churches and public halls, and the founda- tion of free schools, free libraries, reading rooms, lyceums, and other appli- ances of a prosperous and enlightened city. Contributions for these objects will be thankfully received, by mail, and faithfully appropriated. Theodore Dwight ; President, G. Manning Tracy, Secretary, J. E. Snodgrass, Vice President, D. C. Van Norman, Treasurer. George Walter, General Sup’t, Letters should be addressed, post paid, (if answer required, in all cases enclosing two stamps,) to GEORGE WALTER, General Superintendent, Office of “ American Settlement Company,” 229 Broadway, (up stairs,) New York. N. B. — No letters will be answered unless stamps are enclosed. Persons! sending money for shares will send copy of form as directed, authorizing the general superintendent to sign their name to the constitution. OCTAGON SETTLEMENT COMPANY. Whereas it is of the first importance in the settlement of any new terri- tory, tha associations sho’ Id be formed on principles of freedom and mo- 226 THE GARDEN OP THE WORLD, OR rality, as the surest foundations for the prosperity of the settlements and the welfare of the country, and that such organizations should afford mutual aid and protection, combining educational, social, and individual advantages, therefore be it Resolved, that we, the undersigned, having examined the plan of Octagon Settlement originated by Henry S. Clubb, do hereby agree to form an Octa- gon Settlement Company, and to abide by the following constitution : — OBJECTS. 1. To form a union of persons of strict temperance principles, who, in the admission of members, shall have a guaranty that they will be associated with good society, and that their children will be educated under the most favorable circumstances, and trained under good example. 2. To commence a settlement in Kanzas Territory, for the pursuit of agriculture and such mechanic arts as may be advantageously introduced. 3. To promote the enactment of good and righteous laws in that territory, to uphold freedom, and to oppose slavery and oppression in every form. VEGETARIAN SETTLEMENT COMPANY. Whereas the practice of vegetarian diet is best adapted to the develop- ment of the highest and noblest principles of human nature, and the use of the flesh of animals as food tends to the physical, moral, and intellectual injury of mankind, and it is desirable that those persons who believe in the vegetarian principle should have every opportunity to live in accordance therewith, and should unite in the formation of a company for the perma- nent establishment, in some portion of this country, of a home where the slaughter of animals for food shall be prohibited, and where the principle of vegetarian diet can be fairly and fully tested, so as to more fully demon- strate its advantages, — therefore Resolved, that we, the undersigned, do hereby agree to form ourselves into a Vegetarian Settlement Company, and to abide by the following constitution : — OBJECTS. 1. The establishment, in the centre of the United States, of permanent homes for vegetarians, where all the appliances for the production of their favorite articles of diet, fruits, and farinaceous productions are at hand ; namely, rich soil, salubrious and healthful climate, pure water, &c. 2. The concerted action of vegetarians so associated to be used for the establishment of a system of direct dealing, supplying the productions of the soil of the best quality direct from the producers to the consumers, without the enormous profits of speculators and retailers coming between these respective parties. 3. The dissemination of practical vegetarian information, in connection with the supply of the articles of vegetarian diet. 4. The calling public attention to the subject of vegetarian diet in a way no mere theoretic movement in the form of lectures or publications ever can he expected to accomplish. For information relative to either of the before-mentioned companies, persons desirous of uniting themselves in their interests are referred to the following address : — George Walter, Esq., Room No. 24, No. 219 Broadway, New York City. *** Enclose stamp in all ctses, if an answer is desired. THE GREAT WEST. 227 NEBRASKA. This territory embraces an area about as large as Italy, France, and Spain. We beg the reader’s careful perusal of the following interesting account of the country, with an abstract of Colonel John C. Fremont ’& travels in the territory : — Nebraska Territory, as erected by the late act of Congress, is bounded as follows, viz. : north by the 49th parallel of latitude, separating it from the British possessions ; south by the 40th parallel, a few miles below the north-west corner of the State of Missouri ; east by the Missouri Biver, the western line of Mis- souri, and the western line of Minnesota ; and west by the main ridge of the Bocky Mountains. Area, 275,000 square miles. Surface of the country, from the Missouri Biver westward to the base of the moun- tains, is rolling prairie, but little diversified in its aspect, save by the intersection of its streams. The soil, for a space varying from 50 to 100 miles west of the Mis- souri Biver and the state line, is nearly identical with that of Iowa and Missouri. The highlands are open prairies, covered with grasses ; the river bottom a deep rich loam, shaded by dense forests. From this first district to about the mouth of L’Eau qui Court (Bun- ning Water Biver) it is one boundless expanse of roll- ing prairie, so largely intermixed with sand as to be 228 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OR almost unfit for ordinary agricultural purposes. The prairies are, however, carpeted with succulent grasses, affording an inexhaustible supply for herds of cattle and sheep. The third district, extending in a belt of many miles east and west of the Mandan village, on the most northern bend of the Missouri River, and southward across the southern boundary of the terri- tory, is a formation of marl and earthy limestone. Soil very productive, especially adapted to wheat, rye, bar- ley, Indian corn, and oats. It is in this district that what are called buttes by the Canadian French and cerros by the Spaniards are profusely scattered. Here and there the traveller finds surfaces varying in diam- eter from a hundred feet to a mile, elevated from fifteen to fifty feet above the surrounding surface. They are not hills or knobs, the sides of which are more or less steep, and covered with grass. Their sides are nearly perpendicular, their surfaces flat, and often covered with mountain cherries and other shrubs. They have the appearance of having been suddenly elevated above the surrounding surface by some specific cause. This marl and limestone formation is, in many localities, worked into fantastic or picturesque forms by the action of the elements. In one place, especially, called by the traders La Mauvaise Terre , (the bad ground,) and about thirty miles in diameter, it has assumed a mar- vellous variety of singular forms. From one point of view it assumes the aspect of an extensive and frown- ing fortification ; from another, the appearance of an Oriental city, crowned with domes and minarets ; and THE GREAT WEST. 229 from a third, the appearance of a sterile, broken, and unattractive congregation of incongruous elements. These delusive appearances are produced by distance and the position of the sun. The wrecks of the dilu- vian period of geology are spread all over this region, and most profusely on that portion north of the Mis- souri River. Detached masses of rock, some of them hundreds of tons in weight, wholly unconnected with the adjacent geological formations, and evidently allied to those of the northern Rooky Mountain region, dot the whole country. The district lying north of the Mis- souri River, and west of Minnesota, is a succession of undulating plains, the soil of which is quite fertile, but rather dry. These plains are covered with a thick grassy sward, which sustains innumerable herds of bi- son, elk, and deer. The district at the base of the Black Hills, between that range and the Rocky Mountains, includes the val- ley of the Yellow Stone, of the Maria’s River, and a variety of other small valleys, circumvallated by an amphitheatre of mountains and gorgeous mountain scenery. The valley of the Yellow Stone is spacious, fertile, and salubrious. The streams are fringed with trees, from whence the valley expands many miles to the mountains. The traveller can almost imagine him- self upon the Danube, for the valley is sprinkled over at long intervals with cyclopean structures of granite closely assimilated in appearance, from a distant view, to the stern and solitary castles with which Europe was covered and guarded during the middle ages. But 20 230 THE GARDEN OP THE WORLD, OR these structures exceed those of Europe in magnitude and grandeur, and the woods and waters are disposed with a taste and beauty which the highest art must ever toil after in vain. It is encircled by a rich girdle of heights and mountains, the bases and darker sides of winch are obscured in shrubs, and the summits tufted with noble forest trees. And here is to be the seat of a populous and powerful community in the far future. The Missouri River was ascended by Lewis and Clarke, in canoes, a distance of 3000 miles. It has been navi- gated by steamboats to the foot of the Great Falls, 2500 miles. From the point where the Nodoway (a Missouri stream) enters it upward, the northern bluffs recede, leaving a broad, open, rolling plain. On the south bank the highlands skirt the stream closely. Above Council Bluffs, opposite Kanesville, Iowa, the bluffs on both sides recede, and there is little or no timber, save only bunches of cottonwood. From the mouth of Jacques River the river valley continues to become narrower to the base of the mountains. The river valley is the only rich alluvion, the highlands being intermixed with sand largely, and unfit for agri- culture except in the third district, already described. Down as low as the Mandan village the water is as clear as the Ohio. From thence, onward to its mouth, it is impregnated by its tributaries with marl and sand, and always looks as muddy as if in a freshet. The spring freshet usually occurs about the first of June. Except during this freshet, the ascent above Council Bluffs, by boats of 50 tons, is arduous and difficult, and its de- THE GREAT WEST. 231 scent by such boats nearly impossible, on account of the number and shifting character of the bars. There is a difference of 7 degrees in the specific gravity of the waters of the Missouri at the mouth of the Kanzas River and the waters of the latter stream. The former has many more tributaries running through marl and quicksand. The average rapidity of the waters of the Missouri is nearly twice that of the Upper Mississippi. The Orinoco only exceeds it in velocity. The Missouri on the 41st parallel is more than 500 feet above the Mississippi on the same line. After leaving the Great Falls, the tributaries of the Missouri are not numerous, and none of them above Council Bluffs are navigable for any thing but canoes. The large space intervening between it and the great Platte (or Nebraska) is desti- tute of streams, and nearly so of springs. Hence the grass on the larger portion of this immense tract be- comes withered and stunted very early in the season. Its chief tributaries are the Platte, the Sioux, the Jacques, the L’eau qui Court, the White, the Hart, and the Yellow Stone. The Platte, or Nebraska, rises near the 40th degree of latitude, and longitude 106°, in the Rocky Moun- tains, and flows thence northward and eastward to its outlet, receiving the South Fork in latitude 41°, and longitude 100°. At the junction of the two forks the river is over 5000 feet in width, and thence onward varies from one to two miles in width. It is so shallow and so capricious, in consequence of its quicksands, that it may be considered as almost useless for purposes 232 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OR of commerce. Were its waters confined to a channel of a thousand feet in width, it would be one of the noblest streams in the world ; but this may be con- sidered impossible. The valley is from eight to fifteen and twenty miles in width. It is generally a dead flat, elevated only from eighteen to twenty-sis inches above the surface of the stream, and the greater portion liable to inundation. It is entirely destitute of timber, but produces a luxuriant growth of the richest grapes. Of the Sweet Water River, an affluent of the Ne- braska, Fremont says, “ It is 120 miles long, heading in the South Pass. It is a handsome mountain stream, with a well-defined valley, in general sandy, and five miles wide. The immediate river bottom is a good soil, with abundance of soft green grass.” Again, of the ascent to the Great South Pass, he says, “ The as- cent had been so gradual that, with all the intimate knowledge possessed by Carson, who had made this country his home for seventeen years, we were obliged to watch very closely to find the place at which we had reached the culminating point. Approaching it from the mouth of the Sweet Water, a sandy plain, 120 miles long, conducts, by a gradual and regular ascent, to the summit, about 7000 feet above the sea ; and the traveller, without being reminded of any change by toilsome ascents, suddenly finds himself on the waters which flow to the Pacific Ocean.” Of his ascent to one of the highest peaks of the Rocky Mountains, from this pass, he thus speaks : “ We were now approaching the loftiest part of the Wind River chain ; winding our THE GREAT WEST. 238 way up along a ravine, we came unexpectedly in view of a most beautiful lake, set like a gem in the moun- tains. The sheet of water lay transversely across the direction we had been pursuing ; and, descending the steep, rocky ridge, where it was necessary to lead our horses, we followed its banks to the southern extremity. Here a view of the utmost grandeur burst upon our eyes. With nothing between us and the base to lessen the effect of the whole height, a grand bed of snow- capped mountains rose before us, pile upon pile, glow- ing in the bright light of an August day. Immediately below them lay the lake, between two ridges, each cov- ered with dark pines, which swept down from the main chain to the spot where we stood. Here, where the lake glittefed in the open sunlight, its shores of yellow sand and the light foliage of the aspen groves con- trasted well with the gloomy pines. August 15. (Reached the peak after five days’ exertion.) At break of day we set out, having secured strength for the day by a hearty breakfast. We soon had the satis- faction to find ourselves riding along the huge wall which forms the central summits of the chain. There, at last, it rose by our sides, a nearly perpendicular wall of granite, terminating two or three thousand feet above our heads, in a serrated line of broken, jagged cones. Here were three small lakes of a green color, each of perhaps a thousand yards in diameter, and ap- parently very deep. Having divested ourselves of all unnecessary clothing, and put the mules on a bench, about a hundred feet above the lakes, where there was 20 * 234 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OR a patch of good grass, we commenced the ascent of the wall, to reach its highest peak, sitting down when we found the breath beginning to fail. At intervals, springs rushed from the rocks ; and at 1800 feet above the lakes we came to the snow line. From this point our progress was uninterrupted climbing. Reached the summit, a narrow crest. We mounted the barometer in the snow of the summit, and fixing a ramrod in a crevice, unfurled the national flag to wave in the breeze, where never flag waved before. The barometer stood at 18,293, the attached thermometer at 44°, giving 13,570 feet for the elevation above the Gulf of Mexico. Fields of snow lay far below us, boundless mountains stretched before us. A stillness the most profound, and a terrible solitude, forced themselves constantly on the mind, as the great features of the place.” The Yellow Stone has its sources in the Rocky Mountains, but their exact location has never been ex- plored. It flows north-eastwardly to its mouth. It has been navigated for eighty miles by steamboats, and may be rendered usefully* available for other craft two hundred and fifty miles. This valley is the garden spot of Nebraska. It is finely timbered and watered. In the future, commercial intercourse will be carried on, hot ween this valley and that of Clarke’s branch of the Columbia. Ceneral Clarke found a fine wagon road connecting them in 1806, and Major Stephens has recently discovered an open gap through the Rocky Mountains. These two valleys, embracing the sources of the two greatest rivers on the continent, which will THE GREAT WEST. 235 bear tlieir products to the two great oceans, surround- ed by other smaller but no less rich ones, will be the future Switzerland of America. Vegetation in Iowa is some weeks later than in Missouri. In Eastern Ne- braska it is some weeks later than in Iowa, and in the vicinity of the mountains some weeks later still. From the city of St. Louis, travelling either northward or westward, the climate becomes colder about in the same degree — the difference of elevation travelling west being about equivalent in its effects to the differ- ence of latitude travelling north. Snow falls at the foot of the mountains about the 1st of September, and at Council Bluffs about the 1st of November. Coal has been found in the north-western counties of Mis- souri, and it is probable may be found in the south-east portions of Nebraska. SETTLEMENTS. Nebraska has as yet but few towns, but we give the following account from our correspondent of Cass county : — Kanoshe, Cass County. Cass county is situated on the Missouri River, and is the first county south of the Platte. It now contains between seven and eight hundred inhabitants, and is one of the best counties for farming in Nebraska. Ne- braska appears to be almost entirely overlooked by our good friends at the East. All their efforts appear to be for Kansas. Would it not be worth their while to turn 236 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OR tlieir attention a little towards Nebraska ? Nebraska Territory is fully equal to Kansas, and in some respects superior. The country south of Platte is superior to that north, and contains, according to the census taken this fall, more than twice the number of inhabitants. The soil is rich and rolling, well watered, and healthy. The lands in this region of country will be surveyed this winter. The crops here have been fine, consider- ing it was the first season that any planting has been done by the whites. THE GREAT WEST. 287 MINNESOTA. This territory Avas formerly a part of the vast coun- try belonging to the United States which was acquired by the Louisiana purchase in 1803. It was then, with the surrounding regions, a rugged and unmeasured wilderness, peopled only by savages, and had never been systematically explored by civilized man until about the period of its transfer. The tract now em- braced within the limits of the territory Avas duly organized, and its boundaries defined, by an act of Congress, passed March 3, 1849, “ to establish the territorial government of Minnesota.” BOUNDARIES AND EXTENT. Bounded on the north by the boundary line between the possessions of the United States and Great Britain ; east and south of east by said boundary line to Lake Superior, and by a straight line thence to the northern- most point of Wisconsin in said lake ; also along the western boundary of Wisconsin to the Mississippi River, and down the main channel of said river to the point Avliere the line of 43^° north latitude crosses the same ; south on said line, being the northern boundary of Iowa, to the north-west corner of that state, whence the boundary proceeds southerly along the western 238 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OR limit of Iowa, until it strikes the Missouri River ; and west by the main channel of said river, as far as the mouth of Whitcearth River, and by the main channel of the latter until it strikes the boundary of the British possessions. The territory, at its northern extremity, reaches from east to west between the 90th and 103d degrees of west longitude, and comprehends an area of 83,000 square miles. MYERS. Almost the entire eastern boundary, by the Missis- sippi and St. Croix Rivers, is navigable water : steam- boats ply upon the former, within the territory, for upwards of 300 miles. At the north-east the territory is bounded by that immense expanse of waters, Lake Superior. The Minnesota winds through a delightful valley, in a south and easterly direction, and has been ascended more than 200 miles. The Big Sioux, and other tributaries of the Missouri, flow southerly and westwardly. The Red River of the north, taking its rise near the centre of the territory, flows northerly, and is navigable for some 400 miles before passing into the British possessions. The Missouri, which constitutes a great portion of the western boundary, affords naviga- tion during nearly its whole course along the territory. There are many other fine streams, and numerous large lakes, all presenting facilities for inland commerce, such as are possessed by no one state or other territory in the Union. THE GllEAT WEST. 239 CLIMATE. Considering its high northern latitude, Minnesota enjoys a climate quite mild, in comparison with that of the more eastern states on the same parallel. The winters are less severe, except at some points in the neighborhood of the great lake ; bnt the weather is uniform, regular, and subject to few or no sudden changes. The summers are temperate, and of suffi- cient length to bring forth and perfect the numerous agricultural products for which the soil is so well adapted. With abundance of pure water, and a salu- brious atmosphere throughout the year, the people cannot but be favored with an uncommon measure of health. SURFACE AND SOIL. The face of the country, in the central parts of the territory, is gently undulating in its general character, and exhibits about equal proportions of prairie and timber land, intersected in every direction by clear and beautiful streams, tributary to the Mississippi and Min- nesota or St. Peter’s Rivers, and navigable always in the spring for flat boats. This region also abounds in lakes of pure water ; and its soil is represented as being unrivalled in fertility. With some modification, the same remarks may apply to the other sections of the territory. The valley of the Red River of the north, extending south some 300 miles, from the northern boundary of the territory into the centre, is about 150 240 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OR miles wide, and perfectly level, with the exception of a few tracts of wet prairie, and is admirably adapted to the culture of wheat and other grains. The soil, for the most part, throughout the territory, consists of a mixture of sand and black loam, and, being loose and porous, is peculiarly favorable to the rapid growth of bulbous and other roots. Potatoes have been known to yield 450 bushels to the acre. Vegetable crops of all kinds, and in luxuriant profusion, are brought ear- lier to maturity than in many regions farther south. In the valley of Minnesota River, the strawberry vine commonly attains a height of 12 inches. A large part of the territory is overspread with vast forests of excel- lent pine and other trees of great value for building. AGRICULTURE. There were in this territory, in 1857, 15,000 acres of improved land, and 000,000 acres of unimproved land in farms. Cash value of the same, $400,000. Implements and machinery attached thereto, $25,000. Value of live stock, $150,000. The wheat crop last year was 500,000 bushels ; rye, 200,000 ; corn, 30,000 ; oats, 60,000 ; barley, 4,000 ; buckwheat, 1,000. INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. A canal, to connect Lake Superior with Lake Huron, has been much talked of, and probably at no distant day will be constructed ; as such a work will secure THE GREAT WEST. 241 uninterrupted water communication down the great chain of lakes to the Atlantic coast. The removal of obstructions in the Mississippi and other rivers — sur- veys for which purpose have been authorized by Con- gress — will add many hundred miles to the already immense extent of navigable waters lying within and around this territory. The aid of railroads will of course soon be called in, to complete that system of internal improvements which Nature herself seems to have suggested. GOVERNMENT. The government is, of course, temporary, subject to such alterations, and to such further division of the territory, as may be determined by act of Congress. All free white inhabitants, 21 years of age, are voters, and were eligible for any territorial office at the first election. A Council and House of Representatives compose the legislative assembly ; the former consisting of 9 members, chosen for two years, the latter compris- ing 18 members, elected annually. The legislature may increase the Council to 15 members, and the rep- resentatives to 39. The governor is appointed for four years, by the President and Senate of the United States. The secretary of state, in like manner appointed, is acting governor in the absence of the executive magis- trate. EDUCATION. To this subject all due regard is given. Two sections 21 242 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OR in each township are set apart for the support of schools In all the settled places, school-houses are among the first edifices erected. In some towns public libraries are established, and courses of instructive lectures maintained. RELIGIOUS STATISTICS. There are four beautiful church edifices in St. Paul, the capital, and several others in the towns of St. An- thony Falls and Stillwater. The several denomina- tions of Christians consist of such as are usually found m the New England States. POPULATION. The inhabitants of this territory, at the census of 1850, numbered but 6038, exclusive of Indians. But so desirable a country must soon attract towards it large reenforcements from the Northern and Eastern States. The tide of emigration, in fact, is already turned, and has been moving with so strong an impulse in that direction, that in 1855, the number of inhab- itants was 50,000, and before the next decennial enu- meration, Minnesota will no doubt have acquired the complement of inhabitants necessary t r her admission as an independent state. THE GREAT WEST. 243 ST. PAUL. Post village and capital of Ramsay county, Minne- sota Territory, on the left bank of the Mississippi, 15 miles by water and 8 miles by land below the Falls of St. Anthony, and about half that distance below the mouth of Minnesota River, latitude 44° 52' 46" north, and longitude 93° 04' 54" west. It is situated on two broad benches of land, the lowest of which is 50 feet above the high water mark of the Mississippi, which river flows past the town in an east by north direction. The town site is flanked by beautiful bluffs, from which issue springs of cold clear water, and nature has done every thing to make it a romantic and healthful situa- tion. The first store, or trading house, was built in 1842, and seven years later it was the site of a Catholic mission, surrounded by stunted copse, and looking across the river from his elevated table rock, the pious recluse saw a gloomy and silent forest frowning upon the sluggish waters and rising with the river hills, fall- ing back for miles into the prairie, presenting an aspect of interminable woodlands reaching to the distant sun- set. The town has risen from this wilderness as if by magic. It has now an imposing state house, 139 feet by 53 feet, a court house, with metallic dome, glittering in the sun like a fairy castle, jail, 9 churches for Chris- tian worship, 518 dwellings, offices, and shops, 70 man- ufactories and business houses, 4 hotels, 4 school houses, public and private. In machinery of various kinds, 244 THE GARDEN OP THE WORLD, OR including a flouring mill, an iron foundery, a plough factory, 4 wagon shops, Ac., $177,000 is invested ; and stocks of merchandise of all descriptions are valued at $790,000 — the last sum including the amount invest- ed in the Indian trade. In 1850 its population num- bered only 1135. In 1857, it contained 8000 inhab- itants. Lines of steamers, coming and going daily, omnibuses, coaches, Ac., and yet St. Paul is in the wilderness. Look where you will, and the primitive features of the surrounding country remain unchanged, and the wild animal and Indian still haunt the grounds to which ages of occupancy have given them a prescrip- tive right. This new town, however, will “ go ahead,” and must eventually become a depot of a vast interior commerce. It will receive and distribute the merchant ware of the Upper Mississippi and the whole valley of the Minnesota, which is now being opened to settlement. Already the annual arrival of steamers from below av- erages 200, bringing to the rising state a wealth of labor that will soon level the forests and make the land glad with its burden of agricultural profusion. The soci- ety at St. Paul is a peculiar conglomeration of attrac- tive and repellent elements, reaching through all shades of color, from the bronzed savage to the smoothly pol ished Circassian ; and that confusion of tongues which distracted the builders of- Babel is no comparison to the St. Paulian jargon. The Sioux, the French, the Patois, Dutch, German, Norwegian, Irish, English, and Ameri- can alternately salute you in the street. There are but THE GREAT WEST. 245 few drones here ; every body is busy, with no idle, moneyed aristocrats to tyrannize over the industrious poor. All here are strangers from different parts — all adventurers ; all industrious, generally very orderly, and consequently very prosperous and happy. ST. ANTHONY. A thriving post town of Ramsay county, Minnesota, is finely situated on the left bank of the Mississippi River, at the Falls of St. Anthony, 8 miles by land above St. Paul. Latitude 44° 48' 40" north, longitude 93° 10' west. The Mississippi here has a perpendicular fall of about 18 feet, the first which occurs in ascend- ing the river. The site of the village is an elevated prairie, rising by a gradual acclivity, and commanding a fine view of the falls. Situated at the head of navi- gation on the Mississippi, and in the immediate vicinity of an unlimited water power, St. Anthony can scarcely fail to become an important commercial and manufac- turing city. The University of Minnesota is established here. The town contains several houses of worship, from 8 to 10 stores, 2 newspaper offices, and numerous saw mills, besides other mills and manufacturing estab- lishments. The post office is called St. Anthony’s Falls. Population in 1850, 750 ; in 1853, about 2000 ; in 1857, about 3000. Our correspondent, writing from this place, says that “ there is a wire suspension bridge across the Mississip- 21 * 246 THE GREAT WEST. pi, and that the tolls for the first year amounted to $12,500, and for the month of October, they were $1940 ; also that the citizens have raised a bonus of $20,000, and a Mr. Winslow has obligated himself to erect within a year a hotel to cost at least $60,000.” This adds another to the many testimonies of the prog- ress and enterprise of the Great West. 248 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OR TEXAS. Texas was ft rmerly one of the Mexican possessions, though a distant province ; being, as was generally ad- mitted, one of the many conquests of Fernando Cortes, in the sixteenth century. At the period of its subju- gation, it was inhabited by savages of the worst de- scription. Prior to the year 1690, a French colony occupied a small district ; but they were subsequently driven out by the Spaniards, under whose jurisdiction the country remained, with few or no intervals of agi- tation, sunk in the obscurity and lethargy of despotism, until the abdication of Charles VI. of Spain, in 1808. At this time, the people of Mexico began to assert their claim to the privilege of self-government ; and in 1810 an open rebellion against the European authorities en- sued. In 1813 a national Congress issued a declaration of independence ; but a civil war raged for several years among various parties, upon the question as to what form of government should be established. At one time the imperial party prevailed, and Mexico be- came an empire. This continued but for a brief pe riod : a new system, organized like that of the United States, was adopted, and Mexico became a federal re- public, Texas constituting an integral member. A series of revolutions succeeded, during which Texas separated itself from the confederation, achieved its THE GREAT WEST, 249 independence by the battle of San Jacinto, in 1836, and erected itsell into a distinct republic. A constitu- tion was formed in the same year, and the first elections under the same were held forthwith. In 1845, after a prolonged controversy, Texas was annexed to the United States, and admitted into union therewith, by a joint resolution of both houses of Congress, ratified by the Texan people. BOUNDARIES AND EXTENT. This state is bounded on the north by portions of New Mexico, Nebraska, and the Indian Territory ; on the east by the Indian Territory, and by the State of Louisiana, from the latter of which it is partially sepa- rated by the River Sabine ; on the south-east and south by the Gulf of Mexico ; on the south-west by the River Bravo del Norte, dividing it from the Mexican posses- sions ; and on the west by the same, and by New Mexico. It lies between 26° and 36° 30' north latitude, and ex- tends from 94° to 105° west longitude. It is of very irregular form, and is computed to contain about 237,- 320 square miles ; a portion of the original area claimed by Texas, when a republic, having been set off by Con- gress, at the time of its admission as a state, in the for- mation :1 the Territory of New Mexico. 250 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OR RIVERS. In addition to the rivers which form portions of the state boundary, the chief streams are the Neelies, Trinity, Brazos, Colorado, San Antonio, Guadaloupe, and Nueces, with their countless tributaries, all flow- ing towards, and ultimately emptying into, the Gulf of Mexico, after passing generally through the estuaries so numerous along that coast. These bays, being com- monly obstructed by sand bars or narrow strips of land, do not afford convenient harbors, except for vessels of small draught. Steamboats drawing 12 feet of water can enter and ascend the Sabine ; and the Rivers Neches, Trinidad, and Brazos are navigable, for simi- lar craft, from 50 to 300 miles. The San Antonio and Nueces afford no navigation of importance ; and the Colorado, though a fine stream, is obstructed near its mouth by a large raft, which, in course of time, will probably be removed, when vessels may pass up to Aus- tin, the state capital, 220 miles from the gulf. The Rio Grande del Norte, on the south-western border, is a noble stream of some 1800 miles in length, and is already becoming a great commercial channel, though occasionally impeded by shoals and rapids. CLIMATE. Texas is represented usually, by those who have travelled or resided in it, as pos’sessing a delightful climate, and as being remarkably healthy in every pa*i, THE GREAT WEST. 251 with few exceptions at particular seasons. The wet and dry seasons, as in California, constitute the waiter and summer. The former commences in December, and continues until March ; the residue of the year, which is the dry season, comprehends spring, summer, and autumn. Severe cold weather never marks the winter season, and snow is very uncommon, except upon the mountain peaks. The heat of summer, al- though intense, is greatly modified by the regular and brisk breezes which prevail daily from sunrise until about 3 o’clock, P. M. ; and throughout the year the nights are said to be invariably cool. Between April and September, the temperature varies from 63° to 100° Fahrenheit, the average range at noon being about 83°. In summer, intermittent fevers are com- monly prevalent in the low lands upon the Gulf coast, though rarely assuming an epidemic character. SURFACE AND SOIL. The appearance of the suifface of the country is de- scribed as that of a vast inclined plane, gradually sloping from the mountainous elevations in the west towards the sea coast on the south-east, and intersected by multitudes of streams, flowing in a south-easterly direction. It may be considered as comprehending three several divisions, each differing in some respects from the others. The first, commencing at the sea coast, and extending inland from 50 to 100 miles, is a level and exceedingly fertile region, with a rich alluvial 252 THE GARDEN OP THE WORLD, OR soil, exempt from those stagnant quagmires and lagoons which usually characterize the shores of the Southern States, beautifully wooded on the river borders, and abounding with extensive pasture lands, covered with an exuberant growth of native grasses and- herbage. The next is a region of greater extent, presenting an undulating surface, composed chiefly of grassy prairies, interspersed with compactly timbered forests. The soil here rests upon a substratum of limestone and sand- stone, and is of excellent quality. The third and lof- tiest region, situated among or near the great chain known as the Mexican Alps, consists partly of tracts of productive table land ; but the mountain sides are also prolific in almost every variety of trees and shrub- bery, while the intervening valleys, enclosing rich bot- tom lands, are extraordinarily fruitful, capable of re- paying the toil of the husbandman a hundred fold. Indeed, the entire area of this immense state may be said to present, naturally, one of the most admirable countries on earth for agricultural purposes. The state is well wooded throughout. Among the trees most common are live oak of superior quality, other descrip- tions of oak, hickory, elm, walnut, sycamore, many varieties of acacia, cypress, caoutchouc, &c. - The up- lands also produce ample supplies of cedar, pine, and similar forest trees. Fruits and garden vegetables, of every desirable sort, are cultivated with great ease and success. Peaches, melons, grapes, and other fruits known in temperate climates, are raised in profusion ; and figs, oranges, lemons, dates, pineapples, olives, and THE GREAT WEST. 253 other tropical fruits abound in the southern parts of the state. The products of the field consist of cotton, (the great staple,) maize, wheat, rye, barley, and other grains, the sugar cane, potatoes of each kind, &c. Rice and tobacco are grown to some extent in different quar- ters ; and among the indigenous plants are indigo, va- nilla, sarsaparilla, and many medicinal shrubs. As a grazing country, Texas is exceeded by few or none of her sister states. Yast numbers of cattle, horses, mules, sheep, and swine are raised upon the prairie lands, re- ceiving or requiring but little hum^n care. Buffaloes and wild horses range the prairies in immense droves ; and the deer, the bear, and other game, are every where abundant. AGRICULTURE. There were in this state, in 1857, 900,000 acres of land improved, and 14,000,000 unimproved, in farms. Cash value of the farms, 120,000,000. Value of im- plements and machinery attached thereto, 12,500,000. Value of live stock, 113,000,000. The wheat crop last year was 100,000 bushels; rye, 6000 ; Indian corn, 10,520,000 ; oats, 250,000 ; barley, 500.000 ; buckwheat, 72 bushels. Peas and beans, 215.000 ; potatoes, 120,000 ; sweet potatoes, 2,000,000. Value of products of the orchard, $ 14,000 ; value of products of the market gardens, $14,000 ; molasses, 600.000 gallons ; wool produced, 175,000 pounds ; to- bacco, 80,000 pounds. 22 254 THE GARDEN OP THE WOELD, OR INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. In so recently settled a state, little advance can be expected to have been made in this respect, beyond opening ordinary roads ; however, Texas, young as she is, has begun to turn her attention in that direction, and in January, 1853, 32 miles of railway were in operation. A road is projected, to be called the Texas Central Railway, and another is in course of construc- tion from Vicksburg, Mississippi, to Marshall, in Texas, perhaps to be continued to Austin. Abroad is in con- templation from San Antonia to Saluria, one from Gal- veston to Austin, and several others. GOVERNMENT. The existing constitution of the state guarantees the right of suffrage to every free white male 21 years of age, after a residence of one year in the state, and six months in the district where voting. The executive officers, who can serve but four out of any six years, are elected for terms of two years by a plurality of the popular vote. The secretary of state, treasurer, and comptroller are chosen also for two years, by the legis- lature in joint ballot. Senators are chosen for four years, one half the number retiring from office every two years ; the whole number not to be less than 19, nor more than 33. Representatives, not to exceed 90, nor fall short of 45, in number, are elected bienially ; THE GREAT WEST. 255 and the sessions of the legislature are held at like in- tervals. Persons concerned in duels are disqualified from holding office. Grants of money for internal im- provements, &c., cannot be made without the sanction of two thirds of both houses. The laws are to be re- vised once in every ten years. Homesteads are ex- empted from forced sales for debt. The real and per- sonal property of a wife is protected from seizure for the payment of the husband’s debts. Corporations are not to be created with banking powers. The state cannot subscribe for stock in private corporations, nor borrow money, nor contract debts in time of peace to an amount exceeding 1100,000, unless by a two thirds vote of the legislature. No law for the emancipation of slaves can be passed, without consent of owners, and the payment of full compensation. The introduction of slaves as merchandise may be prohibited. Owners of slaves may be compelled by law to treat them with care and kind- ness ; and in cases of refusal or neglect, the slaves may be taken and sold for account of the owners. Slaves may have a trial by jury when charged with crimes greater than petit larceny, and are protected against abuse or loss of life equally with the whites, except- ing when engaged in a revolt. EDUCATION. The nucleus of a school fund has been formed, by a constitutional provision, requiring the reservation of ten per cent, of the annual state revenue derived from 256 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OR taxation, as a permanent fund for the maintenance of free public schools. Public lands granted for school purposes cannot be leased for longer terms than 20 years, nor alienated in fee. The important subject of education has, however, as yet, occupied no great share of the public mind. Some schools, of tolerable repute, are supported in the most populous settlements ; and a late writer asserts that there are, also, some colleges in the state ; but this report is scarcely sanctioned by any collateral authority. It is supposed, nevertheless, that the state contains fewer free persons over 20 years of age, who can neither read nor write, in proportion to the whole population, than any other of the Southern States of the Union. RELIGION. Among the descendants of the earliest settlers, the Roman Catholic is of course the prevailing religion, as in New Mexico. But since the revolution, which re- sulted in the severance of Texas from Mexican sway, other Christian denominations, of almost every class and name known in the older states of the Union, have multiplied and flourished ; and the cathedrals erected by the devotees of the pope are now vastly outnum- bered by the churches and other houses of worship oc- cupied by Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Baptists, Meth- odists, &c. THE GREAT WEST. 257 POPULATION. The civilized inhabitants of Texas comprise emi- grants from all the other states of the Union, besides the descendants of the original Spanish settlers, and persons in whom Mexican and Indian blood is blended. The former class, in all probability, compose a majority of the present population, which, by the census of 1850, was as follows : Whites, 154,100 ; free colored, 331 ; slaves, 58,161 ; total, 212,592. The population in 1855 is estimated to be not far from 275,000. THE FUTURE OF TEXAS. General Sam Houston, whose name is identified with the history of Texas, and who has more than any other man shaped the destiny of this once sovereign republic and now flourishing member of the confederacy, wrote the following private letter to Mr. Murphy, then Amer- ican minister to the Texan government, which we take great pleasure in republishing at this time : — “ The times are big with coming events to Texas and the world. I feel that matters now transacting are, if carried out, to perpetuate the union of the states, by the annexation of Texas, for centuries. If this great measure fails, the Union will be endangered, its reve- nues diminished, and a European influence will grow up in Texas, from our necessities and interests, that will most effectually prejudice the interests of the Uniter] States, so far as they are to look for the sale of 22 * * 258 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OR their fabrics in the southern section of this continent, and a forfeiture of our sympathies. Mexico, in a short time, by the influences which Texas can command, will yield every thing to the superior energy, activity, and the employment of well-directed capital which will flow in to us from Europe, and render us the beneficiaries of a most important and extensive trade. All our ports will soon become great commercial marts ; and places now scarcely noticed upon our maps will be built up, and grow into splendid cities. “ These are but few of the advantages which are noticed ; but these, to the statesmen of the United States, ought to cause ceaseless efforts to secure so rich a prize. “ The present moment is the only one that the United States will ever enjoy to annex Texas. I am intensely solicitous to see the matter consummated, and my country at rest. ’Tis true that we are not to be great gainers, when compared to the United States, in what they derive. Had I been at Washington, I would, most certainly, not have made a treaty so in- definite as to individual rights which may arise and be involved in the subject of annexation. We surrender every thing, and in reality get nothing but protection, and that at the hazard of being invaded or annoyed by Mexico before any aid could be rendered by the United States. I hope that the precautions taken will be such as to deter Mexico from any attempt upon us. “ The fact that the United States is one of the rival powers of the world will render that nation more liable THE GREAT WEST. 259 to war than we would be as a minor power. There are a thousand reasons which I could urge why Texas would be more secure from trouble if she could have present peace — which she can obtain readily if she is not annexed. When we once become a part and parcel of the United States, we are subject to all their vicis- situdes. Their commercial relations are extensive, which subjects them to jealousy and the rivalry of other powers, who will seek to overreach them, and cramp them by restrictions, or annoy them by interfer ence. They will not be willing to submit to these things, and the consequence will be war. Nor will this danger arise from any one power of the earth, but from various nations. The wealth of European nations de- pends more upon their labor than the people of this continent. We look to the soil, they to their manufac- turing capacity, for the means of life as well as wealth. These facts are not all ; and, indeed, but a very partial notice of important affairs. The political relations of the United States will increase and become more com- plicated and extensive with their increase of power. Not only this, but they, too, will grow arrogant ; and it will not be a half century, if the Union should last,, before they will feel a strong inclination to possess, by force, that which they at present would be willing to make a subject of negotiation and treaty. “ In all contingencies, if we are annexed, we have to bear a part of their troubles, no matter of what char- acter. Alone and independent, Texas would be en abled to stand aloof from all matters unconnected with 260 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OR her existence as a nation ; while the causes of war to the United States would be a source of benefit and prosperity to her. War could grow up between no power and the United States but Texas would be the beneficiary. The value of her staples woiild be enhanced, and that arising from the influence of war upon the United States. Texas, enjoying as she does a situation on the Gulf, and a neutral attitude, would derive the greatest possible benefits. Calamity to other nations would be wealth and power to Texas. The encouragement given us by the demand for our staples would increase our individual as well as our national wealth. The fleets of belligerents would be supplied with meats from our natural pastures ; and the sale of our superabundant herds would, when added to the sale of our other commodities, give us more wealth than any other nation, in comparison to our popu- lation. “ Apart from this, if we should not be annexed, all the European nations would introduce with alacrity vast numbers of emigrants, because it would enable them to extend their commerce. Those who migrate from the different nations to Texas will retain predi- lections, for many years, in favor of the partialities which nativity carries with it in after life. “ That France and England will pour into our country vast numbers of industrious citizens, there can be no doubt. Belgium, Holland, and other countries, will not be remiss in tlieir duty to ulterior consequences. All these countries have an excess of population, and THE GREAT WEST. 261 the common policy and economy of nations are such, that they will have a care to the location of those who leave their native countries. Never, to my apprehen- sion, have all nations evinced the same disposition to commerce as that which is now exercised and enter- tained. Hence no time has ever been so propitious for the upbuilding of a nation possessed of our advantages as that which Texas at this moment enjoys, in the event that the measure of annexation should fail. Its failure can only result from selfishness on the part of the government or Congress of the United States. If faction, or a regard to present party advantages, should defeat the measure, you may depend upon one thing, and that is, that the glory of the United States has already culminated. A rival power will soon be built up, and the Pacific, as well as the Atlantic, will be component parts of Texas in thirty years from this date. “ The Oregon region, in geographical affinity, will attach to Texas. By this coalition, or union, the bar rier of the Rocky Mountains will be dispensed with or obviated. England and France, in anticipation of such an event, would not be so tenacious on the subject of Oregon as if the United States were to be the sole pos- sessors of it. When such an event would take place, or in anticipation of such result, all the powers which either envy or fear the United States would use all reasonable exertions to build us up, as the only rival power which ext. exist, on this continent, to that of the United States. Considering our origin, these specula- 262 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OR tions may seem chimerical, and that such things cannot take place. A common origin has its influence so long as a common interest exists, and no longer. Sentiment tells well in love matters or in a speech ; but in the affairs and transactions of nations there is no sentiment or feeling but one, and that is essentially selfish. “ I regard nations as corporations on a large and sometimes magnificent scale, but no more than this ; consequently, they have no soul, and recognize no Mentor but interest. “ Texas, once set apart and rejected by the United States, would feel that she was of humble origin ; and if a prospect was once presented to her of becoming a rival to the United States, it would only stimulate her to feelings of emulation ; and it would be her least consideration that, by her growth to power, she would overcome the humility of her early condition. So the very causes which now operate with Texas, and indine her to annexation, may, at some future period, give origin to the most active and powerful animosity be- tween the two countries. This, too, we must look at, for it will be the case. Whenever difficulties arise be- tween the United States and Texas, if they are to remain two distinct nations, the powers of Europe will not look upon our affairs with indifference ; and no matter what their professions may be of neutrality, they can always find means of evasion. The union of Oregon and Texas will be much more natural and con- venient than for either, separately, to belong to the United States. This, too, would place Mexico at the THE GREAT WEST 2 63 mercy of such a power as Oregon and Texas would form. Such an event may appear fanciful to many, but I assure you there are no Rocky Mountains inter- posing to such a project. But one thing can prevent its accomplishment, and that is annexation. “ If you, or any statesman, will only regard the map of North America, you will perceive that, from the 46th degree of latitude north, there is the commencement of a natural boundary. This will embrace the Oregon, and from thence south on the Pacific coast, to the 29tli or 30th degree of south latitude, will be a natural and convenient extent of seaboard. “ I am free to admit that most of the provinces of Chihuahua, Sonora, and the Upper and Lower Califor- nias, as well as Santa Fe, which we now claim, will have to be brought into the connection of Texas and Oregon. This, you will see by reference to the map, is no bugbear to those who will reflect upon the achieve- ments of the Anglo-Saxon people. What have they ever attempted, and recoiled from, in submission to de- feat ? Nothing, I would answer. Population would be all that would be needful, for, with it, resources would be afforded for the accomplishment of any en- terprise. As to the proposition, that the provinces of Mexico would have to be overrun, there is nothing in this ; for you may rely upon the fact, that the Mexicans only require kind and humane masters to make them a happy people, and secure them against the savage hordes who harass them constantly, and bear their women and children into bondage. Secure them from 264 THE GARDEN OP THE WORLD, OR these calamities, and they would bless any power that would grant them such a boon. “ The Rocky Mountains interposing between Missouri and Oregon will very naturally separate them from the United States, when they see the advantages arising from a connection with another nation of the same language and habits with themselves. The line of Texas running with the Arkansas, and extending to the great desert, would mark a natural boundary be- tween Texas, or a new and vast republic to the south- west. If this ever take place, you may rely upon one thing, which is this, that a nation, embracing the ad- vantages of the extent of seventeen degrees on the Pacific, and so extensive a front on the Atlantic, as Texas does, will not be less than a rival power to any of the nations now in existence. “ You need not estimate the population which is said or reputed to occupy the vast territory embraced he- tween the 29th and 46th degrees of latitude on the Pacific. They will, like the Indian race, yield to the advance of the North American population. The amalgamation, under the guidance of statesmen, can- not fail to produce the result, in creating a united government, formed of and embracing the limits sug- gested. “ It may be urged that these matters are remote. Be it so. Statesmen are intended by their forecast to regu- late and arrange matters in such sort as will give di- rection to events by which the future is to be benefited or prejudiced. THE GREAT WEST. 265 “ You may freely rely, my friend, that future ages will profit by these facts, while we will only contem- plate them in perspective. They must come. It is impossible to look upon the map of North America and not perceive the rationale of the project. Men may laugh at these suggestions ; but when we are withdrawn from all the petty influences which now exist, these matters will assume the most grave and solemn national import. “ I do not care to be in any way identified with them. They are the results of destiny, over which I have no control. “ If the treaty is not ratified, I will require all future negotiations to be transferred to Texas.” 23 266 ■THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OR NEW MEXICO. The region now comprehended within the limits established by Congress as the United States Territory of New Mexico formerly constituted a portion or por- tions of a Mexican province. During the war between the United States and Mexico, (1846,) General Kear- ney took peaceable possession of Santa Fe, the capital of the province, and established a temporary govern- ment therein. In the early part of the following year a revolt against the American authorities took place, and six of the civil officers, including the governor, were barbarously murdered. Several battles were sub- sequently fought in different parts of New Mexico, in all which the combined forces of the Mexicans and In- dians were repulsed. By the treaty of peace in 1848, the Mexican title was cancelled, and the immense coun- try, of which this territory forms a part, became an adjunct of the United States. By the act of Congress, passed September 9, 1850, for defining the northern and western boundaries of Texas, &c., a territorial government for New Mexico was also established. BOUNDARIES AND EXTENT. New Mexico is bounded north by the Territory of Utah, and by a part of the scarcely explored wilderness THE GREAT WEST. 267 called Nebraska ; east by the State of Texas ; south by a portion of Texas, and principally by the boundary line between the United States and the Mexican pos- sessions ; and west by the State of California. Its eastern quarter extends from the 32d to the 38tli degree of north latitude, and the residue of the terri- tory from the 33d to the 37th. It lies between 103° and 116° west longitude, reaching from east to west about 600 miles, is from 240 to 360 miles in width, and comprises an area of some 200,000 square miles. SURFACE AND SOIL. The face of the country presents much variety. Stu- pendous ranges of mountains — portions of the great vertebrae of the continent — traverse the eastern half of the territory from north to south, pierced occasion- ally by rugged and precipitous gaps, and sometimes by tracts of prairie, affording passage to travellers. This region includes the former provincial limits of New Mexico, and the oldest and most populous settlements. The country on the west of these elevations exhibits immense plains or plateaus, over which are scattered numerous isolated mountains and broken ridges of volcanic origin, the peaks of some of which rise to a great height. The valleys and slopes between the eminences in the eastern section consist generally of very productive land ; and the river bottoms, especial- ly near the southern boundary, comprise broad tracts of exceedingly rich soil, adapted to the culture of 268 THE GARDEN OP THE WORLD, OR sugar, and of most of the products of that latitude. The portion of country lying on the Gila and Colorado Rivers, where these advantages are ver-y apparent, will doubtless attract the early attention of settlers. The interior of the western half of the territory, so far as it has yet been topographically examined, is, for the most part, an arid and sterile desert, with the exception of some fertile spots and stunted forests along the mar- gin of streams, or among the nooks of the high lands. The soil in this region seems to be either sandy or to consist of a light, porous clay, hearing a species of coarse grass, said to be good winter fodder for cattle. The country does not abound in timber, but in some locations is overgrown for miles with almost impene- trable thickets of mezquite and other thorny shrubbery. Corn, wheat, grapes, peaches, and other grains and fruits, are cultivated in a small way near the villages, and by some tribes of Indians in different parts of the territory ; but it is only in the immediate vicinity of streams that the land may be considered productive, or even inhabitable by civilized beings. POPULATION. The census taken by the civil authorities of the ter- ritory showed a population of 56,984 ; but that of the United States, taken at nearly the same period, (1850 -1,) gives a population of 61,547, exclusive of Indians, of whom, perhaps, it is impossible to obtain a correct enumeration. In 1 857 the number of inhabitants was about 75,000. THE GREAT WEST. 269 UTAH. Utah is a newly organized territory among the dis- tant western possessions of the United States, deriving its name from that of the Pah-Utahs, a numerous tribe of native Indians, heretofore and still, with other tribes, occupying large portions of the country. It formerly composed a very considerable share of the wide-spread wilderness known as Upper or New California, and was consequently considered a Mexican dependency. Very few settlements have ever been made or attempted within the present limits of this region ; in fact, it has scarcely been deemed habitable by civilized beings. The territory, together with that of New Mexico, and of the lately-formed State of California, fell to the United States by right of conquest, during the war with Mexico, and was duly transferred by the latter, under the treaty of 1848. By the act of Congress passed September 9, 1850, establishing a territorial government for Utah, the lim- its of the territory are defined as follows : Bounded on the west by the State of California ; on the north by the Territory of Oregon ; on the east by the summit of the Rocky Mountains ; and on the south by the parallel of 37° north latitude, which forms the dividing line between this territory and that of New Mexico. It ex- tends from the 37th to the 42d degrees of north lati- 23 * 270 THE GARDEN OP THE WORLD, OR tucle, and lies between the 107th and 120th degrees of west longitude ; having a breadth of 300, and an aver- age length from east to west of some 600 miles, con- taining an area of about 180,000 square miles. It is provided by the same act,, that this territory, when admitted as a state into the Union, shall be re- ceived with or without the toleration of slavery, as may be prescribed by its own constitution. All free white males, residents in the territory at the date of said act, were empowered to vote at the first elections, and made eligible to any office in the territory ; after which the legislative assembly shall fix the qualifications of elect- ors. The governor holds office for four years, and receives his appointment from the executive of the United States. He must reside within the territory, act as superintendent of Indian affairs, and commission all territorial officers. He may pardon crimes against the laws of the territory, and reprieve offenders against the United States laws, until the president’s will be known. The president of the United States also ap- points a territorial secretary for a like term, who ad- ministers the government in case of the governor’s disability. A Council of 13 members, and House of Representatives, 26 in number, compose the legislative assembly. The former serve two years, the latter one year, and are elected by plurality of the popular votes. They are to be chosen in appropriate districts, and a due apportionment thereof is to be made by law. Legislative sessions are not to continue beyond forty lays. No laws interfering with the primary disposal THE GREAT WEST. 271 of the so'l, imposing taxes on United States property, or requiring extra taxes on property of non-residents, can be passed by the legislature. No law is valid until approved by Congress. A Supreme Court, District and Probate Courts, and justices of the peace, constitute the judicial power of the territory. The former comprises a chief and two associate justices, to sit annually at the seat of govern- ment, and to hold office four years. A District Court is held by one of the supreme judges, at times provided by law, in each of the three judicial districts of the terri- tory. Justices of peace cannot try cases involving land titles, or debts exceeding $100. Both the Supreme and District Courts have chancery powers, and common law jurisdiction. Appeals from a District to the Su- preme Court cannot have trials by jury. An attorney and marshal are appointed by the United States gov- ernment for a term of four years. After a survey of the lands under the authority of the general government, two sections in each township, equivalent to one eighteenth part of the whole terri- tory, are to be set apart for the support of public edu- cation. It is trusted that the sinister disposal, in some of the new states and territories, of similar liberal provisions for this object, will in due time be guarded against, in this territory, by the friends of common schools. Regarding the finances of this newly-formed territo- ry, there are as yet no authentic reports. Those who have explored the northern part of the 272 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OR country, the number of whom is not great, describe it as mountainous, rugged, and generally barren, without forests, and destitute of valuable indigenous vegetation. Spots occasionally are presented which yield good grass for pasturage ; and here and there may be found val- leys of small extent, which are tolerably fertile. To- wards the western boundary, near the bases of the Sierra Nevada, the soil is generally good. Numerous lakes, emitting streams of moderate size, lie along this region, affording convenient means for irrigation. But the central portion of the country, judging from the imperfect accounts which are at present accessible, is a wide sandy waste, producing, it is true, for a short sea- son after the winter rains, a profusion of grasses and beautiful flowers, all which the succeeding summer heat reduces to an ashy desert. In other quarters, the country exhibits a rolling surface, with tracts of con- siderable fertility, often well wooded and watered, with frequent and extensive openings of prairie lands, and tracts of low grounds composed of a rich and loamy soil. Upon the whole, although a very large portion of the territory has never been subjected to cultivation, and still seems unfit for the permanent abode of civil- ized human beings, it is nevertheless susceptible of unlimited improvement ; and the efforts of industry and science may yet convert it into “ a land flowing with milk and honey.” The principal rivers within the territory, so far as they have yet been traced or partially examined, are named Rio de los Animas Grand, White, Tampa, Yer- THE GRES.T WEST. 273 milion, St. Mary’s, Yintan, and Duchesne Rivers, most of which, with their smaller branches, flow from the north-east, and ultimately unite with the Great Colora- do of the west. The latter appears to take its rise in the western slopes of the Rocky Mountains, near the north-east angle of the territory, and, taking a south- western direction, passes through New Mexico, forming part of the boundary between that territory and the State of California, and finally discharges itself into the Gulf of California. Great Salt Lake, a vast body of water lying near the centre of the northern boundary, is the source of numerous watercourses flowing north and east. Humboldt’s River flows in a north-east direction, from a lake of that name near the mountains on the west. A river of some extent is connected with Nicollet’s Lake, a large sheet, lying in the central part of the territory. A chain of lakes extends northerly from Humboldt’s Lake, the principal of which are Car- son’s and Walker’s Lakes. Pyramid Lake, which is of considerable magnitude, and several smaller collections of water, lie at the foot of the great mountain range which separates Utah from California. From each of these, several rivers stretch out in various directions, and are finally lost in the sands of the desert. No regular mineralogical survey of this region has yet been undertaken, and its mineral resources, which are doubtless great, remain of course undeveloped. Coal, alum, and salt are said to have been found in some localities. Excellent clay for the manufacture of pottery abounds in the central and northern parts ; 274 THE GARDEN OP “THE WORLD, OR and satisfactory indications of iron ore have been dis- covered. Beside the rude utensils and habiliments fabricated by the natives, there are no manufactured articles, of any note, produced within the territory ; unless, indeed, the operations of the Mormons be considered an excep- tion. This unique and erratic people, at their large settlement on Salt Lake, have erected various manufac- turing establishments, including grain and lumber mills, woollen factories, potteries, Ac., and areACble to construct most of the farming or domestic implements, including fine cutlery, required for their own use. This settlement, prior to the organization of the terri- tory, was called by the colonists “ the State of Deseret.” The only railroad yet projected in that country is to be forthwith commenced here, to extend from Mormon City eastward, to the base of a mountain, where are extensive stone quarries. The chief purpose of the road is to convey stone and other materials into the city, for building. But little is known of the present condition and numbers of the native tribes that are constantly roam- ing through this and the neighboring regions. The character of these wanderers, generally, is no better than that of the wildest Arabs or Hottentots. Attempts are in progress to treat with some of the more approach- able among them ; and, where they can be reduced to a state less inconsistent with the true objects of human existence by no other means, large bounties in lands, or “tribute money,” will doubtless be resorted to by the general government. THE GREAT WEST 275 Excepting the colony composing the Mormon settle- ment, and the occupants of the few armed stations established by the United States, with perhaps an occa- sional rancliero occupied by Roman Catholic missiona- ries, there are no white or civilized inhabitants among the population of Utah. At all events, the enumera- tion is not yet completed ; for Congress, by a supple- ment to the act for taking the seventh census, foresee- ing the difficulty of completing the same within the State of California, and the Territories of Oregon, New Mexico, and Utah, by the originally specified time, has authorized an extension of the period, at the discretion of the secretary of the interior. Years may therefore elapse before the completion of this work. In 1857, the number of inhabitants was about 25,000. The climate of Utah is in general more mild than that of the states on the east included within the same latitudes. Upon the sterile deserts in the central and southern parts, the summer heats are intense, and the climate sickly. Nearer the more fertile districts on the west, the temperature is equable, with less difference between the extremes of heat and cold than is usually the case on the Atlantic coast. The elevated lands, to a certain height, are considered very healthy ; but travellers upon the mountain summits have frequently been attacked by fatal fevers and other alarming mal- adies. In the north, the winters are sufficiently mod- erate to admit of hydraulic operations throughout most of the season. The only religious organization, if it can be so called, 276 THE GKEAT WEST. which is now maintained in the territory, is that of tho Mormons, “ or Latter Day Saints.” Besides their es- tablishment at Salt Lake, they have formed a colony in Iron county, about 250 miles south, among the high lands near the boundary of New Mexico ; a position, around which the country is well wooded and watered, abounding in iron ore, and promising plenty of coal. 24 278 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OR OREGON. One of the recently-organized territories of the United States, embracing a vast region, extending from the Rocky Mountains on the east to the Pacific Ocean on the west. The Columbia River, its principal stream, was discovered in 1792, and named by Captain Gray, of ship Columbia, of Boston. Having pene- trated the river for some distance, and established the fact of its existence, the title by discovery belonged to the United States. Under the authority of this govern- ment, Captains Lewis and Clarke, in 1804 and 1805, explored the country from the mouth of the Missouri to the mouth of the Columbia, where they passed the following winter, thus strengthening the claim of the United States to the territory, this exploration of the river being the first ever made by civilized adventurers. The first trading hoiise established in that region was erected on Lewis’s River, a branch of the Columbia, in 1808, by the Missouri Fur Company ; and in 1811 the town of Astoria was founded by the Pacific Fur Com- pany, under John Jacob Astor, of New York. This post was subsequently transferred to the British “ Hud- son’s Bay Company,” in consequence of its exposed situation during the war of 1812, but was afterwards restored 1 according to a stipulation in the treaty of Ghent The British government, however claimed THE GREAT WEST. 279 certain portions of the northern part of the country ; and tli3 question of boundary between the English and American possessions was for a long time a matter of controversy and negotiation. The subject was at length adjusted in 1847, and the 49th parallel of north latitude agreed upon as the line of demarcation. Con- gress, at about the same period, passed an act for the organization of a territorial government. The pro- visions of this act, so far as they relate to civil and ju- dicial magistrates, to the Indians, the public lands, school reservations, &c., are similar to those established in the case of Minnesota Territory. (See Minnesota.') The act has since been amended in some particulars ; but its general features are not essentially altered. The Territory of Oregon is bounded north by the British possessions, from which it is divided at the parallel of 49° north latitude ; east by the main range of the Rocky Mountains, separating it from the waste region of Nebraska ; south by the Territory of Utah and the State of California ; and west by the Pacific Ocean. It extends from latitude 42° north to the above parallel, and, along its southern boundary, reaches from the 108tli to the 124th degree of west lon- gitude. Its area is estimated at upwards of 340,000 square miles. The surface presents three distinct sections or tracts of country, formed by separate and nearly parallel mountain ranges, two of which extend through the territory from north to south. The Cascade Mountains form the eastern limit of the first section, its western 280 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OR boundary being the ocean ; between tliese mountains and the next eastern range, called the Blue Mountains, lies the middle or second section ; and the third sec- tion, still farther eastward, reaches to the Rocky Mountains. These divisions differ considerably in most of their physical characteristics — in soil, climate, and natural products. The soil of the western or coast section, for the space of 100 to 150 miles east of the ocean, is not remarkably well adapted to the growth of grains, al- though many kinds of vegetable esculents may be suc- cessfully cultivated. The land is well timbered with firs, spruce, pine, oaks, ash, cedar, poplar, maple, wil- low, and other forest trees. Fruit trees of the more hardy kinds, shrubbery, vines, &c., are found to thrive in all unexposed places. Towards the coast, some of the forest trees attain a prodigious size and height. Near Astoria, 8 miles from the sea, there is, or recently was, a fir tree 46 feet in girth, and 300 feet high, the trunk rising to a height of 153 feet before giving off a single branch. On the ban k s of the River Umpqua is a still more enormous specimen of the fir, being 57 feet in circumference, and 216 feet high below the branches. Pines reaching an altitude of 200 to 300 feet, and 20 to 40 feet round, are quite common. Good grazing tracts, and lands suited to the culture of many kinds of grain, and to the growth of pears, apples, and similar fruits, are found in the interior of this section and at the base of the Cascade Mountains. The climate in this q larter is mild, though affected unfavorably at THE GREAT WEST. 281 times by the raw sea fogs. It is not, however, unhealthy. The winters continue only from two to three months, commencing in December, though the rainy season lasts from November to March. Snow is not common, except upon the summits of the mountains. The middle section of the territory possesses a fair soil, consisting in part of a light, sandy loam, with many tracts of rich alluvion in the valleys. It is peculiarly suited to the production of wheat, and is fruitful in almost every description of vegetation. The climate here, especially towards the south, is uniformly pleasant and salubri- ous. The third division, lying between the Blue and Rocky Mountains, is extremely rough, and generally barren, with a correspondingly uncongenial climate. It is traversed by gigantic and lofty mountain ridges in various directions, and so broken into rocky masses as to present few level or productive spots. It is covered, in the elevated parts, with snow, to a greater or less depth, during almost the entire year. Rain seldom falls, nor are there any dews. The temperature often varies 40° between sunrise and noon. Much less is known of the two last-mentioned sections of country than of that which lies on the shore of the Pacific, the chief seat at present of all the commercial trading operations of the country. A number of extensive and capacious rivers flow through the territory, generally taking their rise in the mountains, and their course towards the Pacific. The chief among these is the Columbia, (sometimes called the Oreg m,) which originates in the Rocky Mountains, 24* 282 THE GAEDEN OP THE WOELD, OE and, after a devious track of many hundred miles, en- ters the Pacific Ocean from the east in latitude 46° 19' north. It is navigable for vessels of 12 feet draught for 120 miles, and for boats some 40 miles beyond, to the falls of the Cascade Mountains. Some travellers describe it as excelling most of the celebrated rivers of North America in beauty and magnificence. At its mouth lies a large and commodious estuary, the en- trance to which from the ocean is somewhat intricate, but which affords shelter and good anchorage to vessels of the largest tonnage. The Columbia, in its long and tortuous course, receives the waters of numerous tribu- taries flowing from the north, the east, and the south. Some of these are of great volume and extent, and are also supplied by countless smaller branches and forks, stretching from every point, and presenting thousands of admirable mill sites. The other rivers which com- municate directly with the Pacific are the Klamath and the Umpqua, both south of the Columbia, and ex- tending inland only to the first or coast range of moun- tains. The principal rivers which empty into the Co- lumbia at various points, are the Canoe, Kootanie, Clark’s, Spokan, Okanagan, Lewis, Kooskooske, Sal- mon, Umatilla, Quisnel’s, John Day’s, Chute, Cathla- tate’s, Cowelitz, and Willamette. The last named is a very important stream, flowing through a spacious and fertile valley, and uniting with the Columbia at a point not many miles from the ocean. A number of settlements have been made upon the shores of the Columbia ; and on the banks of the Wil- THE GREAT WEST. 283 lamette are situated some of tlie largest villages and towns in the territory. Among the former are Fort Vancouver, Astoria, St. Helen’s, and Milton, the first two of which are places of considerable trade ; and among the latter are Portland, already containing 15,000 inhabitants, several mills, churches, school houses, &c., Milwaukie, Oregon City, Linn City, Champoeg, Salem, and many others, all possessing ample water privileges, surrounded by a fine agricultural country, and inhabited by an industrious, intelligent, moral, and thriving people. Farther in the interior are Hills- , 1 ) 0 rough and Lafayette, the latter having a population of 800. A railroad from Milton, on the Columbia, to Lafayette, and thence into the interior, is in contempla- tion, at an estimated cost of $500, 000. The mountains of Oregon frequently shoot up into conical peaks of astonishing height, presenting objects of grand and awful sublimity. The summits of many of these towering eminences in the coast range reach an elevation of from 12,000 to 14,000 feet above the level of the sea, ascending to twice the altitude of the region of perpetual snow, and bidding defiance to the approach of human footsteps. The Rocky Mountains, that im- mense natural barrier on the east, rise in many places to a still greater elevation. They form a continuous chain, often ascending to a height of 16,000 feet, but occasionally offering to the hardy traveller some con venient depression or gap whereby he may pass from side to side. In the northern part of this range are the sources of Frazer’s River, which finds its outlet at. 284 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OR the north-west corner of the territory, after a course of 350 miles through the British possessions. The northern branch of the Columbia rises in these moun- tains, in latitude 50° north, and, after having traversed this elevated region some 220 miles, and having fallen 550 feet, is still found, at Fort Colville, half way across the territory, to he over 2000 feet above the ocean level. The lands around Puget’s Sound, in the north-west part of Oregon, are among the most valuable in the territory for agricultural purposes, as well as for com- mercial pursuits. They consist of extensive prairies, which furnish food for great numbers of horses, cattle, swine, &c. Several flourishing settlements are estab- lished in this vicinity, and a large amount of trade is carried on. A considerable portion of the inhabitants are French and English emigrants from Canada. Much excellent timber is found in this region ; and mills have been erected upon the adjacent streams, where there are many valuable waterfalls. The waters of this sound abound in shell and other fish. The tide regularly flows and ebbs from 15 to 18 feet, and the navigation is unobstructed and safe. Oregon is extremely rich in mineral resources, especially in the southern quarter, contiguous to the State of California. Large quantities of gold are dug in the fertile and pleasant valleys of the Klamath and the Umpqua. It is found even among the roots of the prairie grass. A lump valued, at $230 was recently taken from a sod ; and those who are in search of the precious metal in this section — of whom there are THE GREAT WEST. 285 thousands — seldom dig to a depth of more than 3 feet. Iron ore aoounds on the Columbia; and among the other minerals already found in different parts of the territory are copper, lead, platina, plumbago, sulphur, salt, and coal. The latter is very abundant on tho Cowlitz River and at Puget’s Sound. There are many populous tribes of Indians within the territory, whose views and feelings are dissimilar in regard to the encroachments of the white man, and the advancement of civilization around them. The most powerful tribe are the Shoshonoes, or Snake In- dians, who are said to number 15,000. The other principal tribes are the Flatlieads, Flatbows, Pointed Hearts, and Pierced Noses. There are besides numer- ous smaller tribes. The governor of the territory in his message to the legislature, in the spring of 1851, advocates the passage of a law by Congress for the pro- tection of the Indian tribes. The population of this territory has multiplied pro- digiously within a very few years. In 1840 the num- ber was estimated at only 700 o» 800. At this time, exclusive of Indians, it is probably not less than 50,000. The new towns are generally peopled by emigrants from the old states, who appear to be sufficiently aware of the value of orderly and liberal institutions, and have made due provision for their establishment and maintenance. They acknowledge the necessity of the immediate construction of roads and other improve- ments, at the public expense ; the establishment of a generou? system of common education, and the enact- 286 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OR ment of laws founded on those principles of justice and benevolence which distinguish thg general codes of the several members of the federal Union. At a late session of the territorial legislature, the capital of the state was located at Salem, on the River Willamette. Acts also were passed for the establish- ment of a penitentiary at Portland, and a university at Marysville. The time cannot be very remote when Oregon will be united, by a direct chain of intercommunication, with all the states and territories lying between the Rocky Mountains and the equally rocky strand of the Atlan- tic Ocean. Already, in fact, the work may be said* to have advanced half way towards completion. The Great Northern Route, so called, embraces a cordon of railroads to extend from Boston and New York to Du- buque, in Iowa, a great portion of the line being fin- ished and in travelling order, and the residue in a state of forwardness. This line runs directly west upon, or very near, the parallel of 42° north latitude, scarcely varying a whole degree in its entire course, thus far, of over 1100 miles. From Boston and New York to Buffalo and Niagara Falls, this route has long been in active operation. Some few curves between Syracuse and Buffalo are to be overcome by a rectilinear section, which will be continued beyond the falls, through the southern portion of Canada West, to Detroit, in Michi- gan. From the latter point the Michigan Central Rail- road now extends across that state, and around the southern margin of Lake Michigan to Chicago ; thence THE GREAT WEST. 287 the line is to proceed to Dubuque, traversing the north- ern boundary of Illinois, and crossing to the western shore of the Mississippi. Here, however, it cannot be stayed. The Iowa Central Railroad will take up the work, and carry it to the borders of Nebraska. At this last terminus only is any obstacle to be apprehended that cannot be quickly removed by the enterprise of the surrounding population. It becomes a national duty, then, to extend the work through that desolate wilderness, until it shall touch the southern boundary of Oregon, in the same latitude of 42°. California and Oregon will then consummate the enterprise, thus securing a direct and uninterrupted connection between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, across the body of the continent, and interjoining, by an imperishable belt of union, the inhabitants and the interests of the eastern and western extremes of this vast confederacy. AGRICULTURE. There were in this state, in 1857, 200,000 acres of improved land ; acres of land unimproved, 400,000, in farms. Cash value of the farms, $8,400,000 ; imple- ments and machinery attached thereto, $215,000. Val- ue of live stock, $2,300,000. The wheat crop last year was 500,000 bushels; rye, 200 bushels; Indian corn, 5000 ; oats, 100,000 ; peas and beans, 10,000 ; potatoes, 150,000. Value of the products of the orchard, $2000. Value of the products of the market gardens, $125,000. 288 THE GAEDEN OF THE WOELD, OR WASHINGTON TERRITORY. Washington, a territory of the United States of America, lies between latitude 45° 25 ' north, longi- tude 108° 30' and 124° 30' west. Area, 113,821 square miles. It is between the Rocky Mountains on the east and the Pacific Ocean on the west, has Oregon on its south border, and the British possessions on the north. The entire population in 1850 was 1201 ; in • 1854, estimated at 5000. It is divided into 6 counties, viz., Clark, Lewis, Pacific, Pierce, Stevens, Thurston. The country west of the Cascade range is the only portion yet settled by a white population ; it has a di- versified surface, and the valleys bordering the streams have a luxuriant soil. The streams are small, the Cowlitz and other small streams entering the Colum- bia River on the south, the Chickeeles entering Gray’s Harbor on the west, and a number of other streams entering Puget Sound on the north-west. Puget Sound, Hood’s Canal, and Admiralty Inlet, abound with fine harbors. The Cascade range crosses the ter- ritory from the south, (at the Cascades on the Colum- bia River,) entirely across it to the north, rising in several peaks above the snow line, as Mount St. Helen’s, (an active volcano,) Mount Rainier, Mount Boker, Ac. East of this range little is known of the capabilities of the country as an agricultural region, although there THE GREAT WEST. 289 is no doubt of its being well adapted for stock raising. It is drained by the constituents of the Columbia, con- sisting of Kooskoosky and Peloose Rivers of the Lewis fork, and Spokane, Okonagan, Barrier, and Yakima Rivers of the Clark’s fork, and Catlaalacades entering the Columbia River. The Strait of JUAN DE FUCA, including the waters of Admiralty Inlet, Hood Canal, and Puget Sound, with the Archipelago of Arro up to the 49th parallel, were all surveyed by the United States Exploring Expedition. The whole is unsur- passed by any estuary in the world. They comprise many very tine harbors and safe anchorages, are entire- ly free from dangers, and cover an area of about 2000 square miles. The country by which these waters are surrounded is remarkably salubrious, and offers every advantage for the accommodation of a vast commer- cial and military marine, with conveniences for docks, and many sites for towns and cities, at all times well supplied with water, and capable of being provided with all needful supplies from the surrounding coun- try, which is well adapted for agriculture. This strait is 95 miles in length ; average width 11 miles, (en- trance 8 miles in width ;) no dangers exist, and it may be safely navigated throughout. 25 290 THE GARDEN OP THE WORLD, OR NEAII, OR SCARBOROUGH HARBOR, on tlie south side of the strait, just within Cape Flat- tery, is but a small indentation in the coast, which is partly sheltered on the north-east by Neah Island. This is the position where the Spaniards attempted to establish themselves in 1792, and the remains of the old fort are still in existence. It offers a tolerably safe and convenient anchorage, though exposed to north- west gales. NEW DUNGENESS is a safe roadstead, and lies 80 miles from Cape Flattery, east by south true, the trend of the strait being east by south, and west by north, nearly. The point of New Dungeness is well adapted for the position of a lighthouse ; it projects into the sti’ait, and would be seen a long distance both up and down. The water close to the point is deep : a vessel may approach to within a quarter of a mile, and after turning it, safe and secure anchorage may be had in from 10 to 15 fathoms of water. It is extensive enough to accommo- date a very large fleet. BUDD HARBOR lies adjoining it, and is connected with the roadstead of New Dungeness by a narrow channel, which has a depth of 21 fathoms, and may be easily deepened if necessary. It is a fine and very capacious harbor, be- THE GREAT WEST. 291 ing 4 miles long, and If wide, and perfectly secure at all times for repairs. POET DISCOYEEY, 7 miles to the south-east of New Dungeness, is very easy of access, and well protected by high, precipitous banks ; the anchorage is close to the shore, in 27 fathoms of water. The name of Port Discovery was given by Vancouver. It is 7 miles long, If average breadth, and its points, which terminate in low, sandy projections, interlock each other. Protection Island covers it completely to the north, and would render it easily defensible against a formidable attack. POET TOWNSEND, at the entrance of Admiralty Inlet, is a fine sheet of water, miles long, and If in width. This bay is free from dangers, and is well protected in the direction from which stormy winds blow. It has anchorage of a convenient depth, and there is abundance of fresh water to be had ; the best anchorage is on the north side. The soil in this place is a light sandy loam, very productive. POET LAWEENCE is just at the junction of Admiralty Inlet and Hood Canal ; it is a convenient anchorage, and is separated from one of the arms of Port Townsend by a narrow 292 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OR strip of land. Passing the entrance to Hood Canal, and up Admiralty Inlet, there are several anchorages where a vessel may await tide in beating up ; such as Pilot and Apple-Tree Cove. PORT MADISON is a fine harbor, and affords every possible convenience for shipping. It is on the west side of the inlet, and communicates on the south by a ship channel with Port Orchard, which is one of the most extensive and beau- tiful of the many fine harbors on these inland waters, and is perfectly protected from the winds. The only danger is a reef of rocks nearly in the middle of the entrance from Admiralty Inlet. It includes 3 arms, the most northern of which, though entered by a nar- row channel, is from J to 1 } mile in width, and extends for a distance of 6 miles. The shores are covered with a large growth of trees, with here and there a small prairie. The soil is superior to that of most places around the sound, and is capable of yielding almost any production of the temperate zone. VASIION ISLAND lies in Admiralty Inlet, above Port Orchard, and has a ship channel on both sides of it. THE GREAT WEST. 293 COMMENCEMENT BAY lies at the bottom of Admiralty Inlet, on the east chan- nel. It affords good temporary anchorage, and a supply of wood and water can be obtained. There is a small stream emptying into it, called by the Indians Puyallup. THE NARROWS, which connect Admiralty Inlet with Puget Sound, are 1 mile wide, and long. The tide here runs with great velocity, causing many whirlpools and eddies, through which a ship is carried with great rapidity, the danger appearing to be imminent. The hanks rise nearly perpendicular, and are composed of sandstone. Point Defiance, on the east, commands all the ap- proaches to it. PUGET SOUND is a collection of inlets, covering an area of 15 square miles, the only entrance to which is through the Nar- rows, which, if strongly fortified, would be almost im- pregnable. The inlets, in the order in which they come from the entrance, have received the names of Carr, Case, Hammersley, Totten, Eld, Budd, and Henderson. They are united by passages, which form several islands and peninsulas. All these inlets are safe, and commo- dious, and capacious harbors, well supplied with water, and the land around them fertile. Nine miles from the Narrows is Nisqually. Here the anchorage is very 25 * 294 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OR much contracted, in consequence of the rapid shelving of the bank, that soon drops off into deep water. The shore rises abruptly to a height of 200 feet, and on the top of the ascent is an extended plain, on which Fort Nisquallv is built. CASE INLET extends to within two miles of the waters of Hood Canal. HOOD CANAL extends for a distance of 40 miles in a south-west di- rection, and then turns to the north-east for 10 miles, approaching the waters of Puget Sound, with an aver- age width of 2 miles. It contains several good harbors, viz., Port Ludlow, Port Gamble, Suquamish, and Scab- ock Harbor, and Dabop Bay. On the east side of Ad- miralty Inlet, as well as at the head of De Fuca Strait, and the waters within the Gulf de Arro as far as Point Roberts, in latitude 49° north, there are many fine harbors and bays, formed by the islands and projecting headlands, viz., Commencement Bay, Eliot Bay, [Port Gardner, Port Susan, Holmes Harbor, Penn Cove,] Hornet Harbor, Strawberry Bay, Billingham and Birch Bays. Those within the brackets lie within Whidby Island. THE NAVAL ARCHIPELAGO, Detween the Canal de Arro and Ringgold Channel, offers many fine anchorages. The Gulf of Georgia and THE GREAT WEST. 295 Johnson Strait are not well adapted for navigation, in consequence of the rapidity of the tides, and the many sunken rocks at the northern outlet. The harbors within them, both on the main land and Vancouver Island, are useless, on account of the great depth of water and the perpendicular banks. Not a shoal exists within the Strait of Juan de Fuca, Admiralty Inlet, Paget Sound, or Hood Canal, that can in any way in- terrupt their navigation by a seventy-four gun ship. The shores of all the inlets and bays are remarkably bold, so much so, that in many places a ship’s side would strike the shore before the keel would touch the ground. Some few of them have creeks emptying into them, with water sufficient to turn mills. These creeks have all extensive mud flats at their entrances, with fertile prairies at their heads and along their banks. The spring tides rise 18 feet ; those of the neap, 12 feet, affording every facility for the construction of dry docks, Ac. The country on all these salt water inlets is said to be remarkably healthy. The winter is repre- sented to be mild, and but of short duration, and the channels and harbors are never obstructed by ice. The climate is said to be unusually mild and even in temperature for so high a north latitude. The country near Puget Sound abounds with fine timber, and its waters with excellent fish. Olympia is the capital, situated on Budd’s Inlet, at the head of Puget Sound. Other principal settlements are Cowlitz, Pacific City, Nisqually, Ac. The government consists of a governor, a Council, 296 THE GREAT WEST. and House of Representatives. The governor is ap- pointed by the president of the United States for the term of four years ; the legislative assembly is elected by the people. Every white male inhabitant 21 years of age, and a citizen of the United States, is a qualified elector. This territory was separated from Oregon in 1853, and constituted a distinct territory. 298 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OR CALIFORNIA. California lias recently become one of the United States. A part of the country was discovered as early as 1542, by a Spaniard named Cobrillo ; and its north- ern section was visited for the first time by foreigners in 1578, when Sir Francis Drake, then at the head of an expedition from England, gave to this region the name of New Albion. The Spaniards planted colonies upon its sea coast in 1768, from which period, until 1836, the territory was a province of Mexico. In the latter year a revolution occurred. The people, after having fre- quently compelled the Mexican governors and other officials to abandon their posts, declared themselves independent, and undertook to organize new political institutions. Several weak and ineffectual attempts to regain absolute control were made from time to time by the Mexicans, until the year 1846. In July of that year the port of Monterey, a central point on the Pacific coast of the state, was seized, in the name of the United States, by a naval force under Commodore Sloat, who at once unfurled the American flag, and established a provisional government. At that epoch, the adminis- tration of the affairs of the territory was in the hands of a civil governor and a military commandant, both natives of California, but holding commissions from the President of Mexico. In 1848 the discovery of. a THE GREAT WEST. 299 gold “ placer ” at Columa, (Sutter’s Mills,) and the ascertained reality of its extraordinary richness, followed immediately by further and equally surprising develop- ments, startled the whole civilized world, and a tide of immigration began to flow in from every quarter, with a rapidity and volume unparalleled in the history of nations. The population forthwith attained the re- quired number for the formation of a distinct state. The inhabitants prepared and submitted to Congress the draught of a constitution ; and in September, 1850, California was admitted into full membership as one of the United States. BOUND ARIES AND EXTENT. By the constitution, adopted by the people in Novem- Der, 1849, and by the act of Congress consequent thereon, the limits of California are established as fol- lows : Commencing at latitude 42° north, and longitude 120° west; thence running south on said line of longi- tude till it intersects the 39th degree of north latitude ; thence in a direct course south-easterly to the River Colorado ; thence down the channel of said river to the boundary between Mexico and the United States ; thence along said boundary to the Pacific Ocean, and into the same three English miles ; thence north-westerly, in the direction of the Pacific coast, to the original parallel of 42°; and, finally, along this line to the point of begin- ning. It lies between 32° and 42° north latitude ; and its extremes of longitude, owing to its angular position, 300 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OR embrace ail extent of about 10°, — its eastern point being at 114° 30', and the western at 124° 30', although the average distance of the eastern boundary from the sea coast, and, consequently, the average breadth of the state, is but 212 miles. Its length from north to south is 764 miles ; estimated area, 188,500 square miles. It is bounded north by the territory of Oregon, east by that of Utah, south by Lower Califor- nia, and west by the Pacific Ocean. RIVERS. The waters of California partake of those varied peculiarities which mark its terrene surface and its atmospheric properties. The sea and its numerous contiguous bays and estuaries, the inland lakes, the rivers and their countless tributaries, are all subjects of speculative interest. They yield abundantly almost every description of fish found in like latitudes, besides many kinds which are either unknown or not common in other regions. Some of the rivers are navigable many miles from their mouths ; others flow over preci- pices and ledges, constituting falls or rapids, which the industry of man may hereafter convert into valuable mill sites. The sea shores are prolific in marine plants, which, at some future day, will doubtless be applied to useful purposes. Immense quantities of kelp are thrown up by the waves — an article that now forms the most available material for the manufacture of iodine, and is also excellent as a compost for arid soils, like those THE GREAT WEST. 301 of this state. Lichens, in all their variety, spring pro- fusely from the rocky strand along its entire extent, which, like the mosses of Iceland, and the carrageen of Ireland, will undoubtedly, in due time, be much prized for their nutritive and medicinal properties. The coasts and inland watercourses swarm with wild fowl, some of which resemble the aquatic birds found on the eastern shores of the continent, and others seem peculiar to the tracts which they inhabit. The principal rivers, com- municating with the Pacific, are the Sacramento and San Joaquin. These flow through almost the whole length of the great valley between the’ Sierra Nevada and the coast range of mountains, the former taking its rise in the north and the latter in the south, and both, uniting near the centre of the state, pass into the noble Bay of San Francisco, whence they reach the sea. They are fed in their course by great numbers of mountain streams from the western slopes of the Siei'ra Nevada. Other important rivers, though of less considerable ex- tent, intersect the state in various directions. CLIMATE. There is nearly, if not quite, as great a diversity of climate in California as of its geological features. The coast and its neighborhood are enveloped in cold mists, borne on the north-west winds, which prevail during most of the summer or dry season, with occasional intei'- vals of more pleasant weather. At San Francisco, although the temperature frequently varies some 308 26 302 THE GARDEN OP THE WORLD, OR in a single day, it is said that the mean temperature, in both winter and summer, is nearly equal. Other posi- tions on the coast are more or less affected by the chilly winds and fogs from the point above indicated, in pro- portion to their relative geographical situations, the line of coast at the southern part of the state being less directly influenced by those causes than that at the northern. In the winter or rainy season the prevailing winds are from the south-west, rendering the tempera- ture much milder than in the same latitudes on the Atlantic side of the continent. Farther inland, beyond the first range ©f mountains, the climate assumes a very different phase. The sea winds of the spring, summer, and early autumn having deposited their freight of moisture upon the summits of the intercepting high- lands, (the “ Cordilleras of California,”) pass gently into the great valley of the Sacramento, carrying a grateful softness, with scarcely a remaining vapor to obscure the brightness of the skies. Proceeding still onward in an easterly direction, these prevailing winds climb the flanks of the lofty Sierra Nevada, and, on reaching its elevated peaks, are deprived by condensa- tion of all watery particles that may yet linger among them. Thence they pass down into the broad basin, spreading eastward to an immense extent, with occa- sional mountainous interruptions. Here another change of climate is perceptible ; the air is exceedingly dry and hot throughout more than half the year, and the earth suffers accordingly. These variations occur sometimes within the distance of a few miles, corresponding gen- THE GREAT WEST. 303 orally with the abrupt changes observable upon the face of the country. A most delightful climate pervades the numerous valleys on the land side of the mountains, where they are protected from the rude ocean blasts. Near the western border of the Sacramento valley, the extremes of temperature, between winter and summer, are very great, comprehending some 80° Fahrenheit, viz., from 30° to 110°. A degree of heat almost as ex- cessive as the last indicated is often felt in various parts of the mountain region ; but this is here so peculiarly modified as to produce none of those injurious effects upon animal life which result from similar temperatures elsewhere. The rainy season, sometimes termed the winter, commences at the north in October or Novem- ber, and progresses slowly to the south, reaching the centre of the state in December, and the southern boundary in January. The season has an average duration of about three months, but is longer and more pluvious at the north than at the south. The effect of all these atmospheric mutations upon human health must naturally be diverse, and not always congenial. The subject, however, has not yet been sufficiently in- vestigated and analyzed to enable one to treat with accuracy upon the relations between those phenomena and the diseases incident to the localities where they respectively exist. That great scourge of modern times, the cholera, has visited some of the most populous set- tlements in the state ; and other epidemics occur at different seasons, similar in character to those which visit ether parts of the world exposed to like vicissitudes and agencies. 304 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OB SURFACE AND SOIL. ' The face of the country presents, perhaps, a greater variety of topographical features than may be found in any one territory of like magnitude upon the whole earth. Several ranges of huge and lofty mountains — many of their peaks of volcanic origin, ascending into the region of perpetual snow — extend through the central parts, and parallel with the sea coast of the state, from its northern nearly to its southern extremity. On the coast side of these ridges, as well as between them, the surface is greatly diversified, presenting many varieties of soil, thin and sandy in some localities, hut in others abounding in the richest loam. Among the hilly regions, there are numerous valleys and plateaus, of different elevations, covered with a soil of good quality, which, wherever duly watered, is capable of being rendered highly productive. But these are frequently interspersed with large tracts of rough, broken, and apparently sterile territory, or intersected by deep and rocky ravines. Until within a very short period, the entire country, with the exception of a few widely sepa- rated spots, exhibited all the harsh and rugged character- istics of a yet unredeemed wilderness. The elevated lands, at certain seasons, are usually either denuded of vegetation, or partially overspread with stunted trees and herbage. But in places that are sheltered, and having facilities for irrigation, fruits and garden vegetables grow luxuriantly. Though few agri- cultural experiments on a large scale have yet been THE GREAT WEST. 305 made, enough has been ascertained to show that the resources of the state, in this respect, may be advan tageously developed. Indeed, it is known that most of the cereal grains can be produced in quantities abun- dantly adequate to the wants of a numerous population. In most parts of the country the vine, fig, oliye, and other valuable plants, both of the temperate and torrid zones, may be cultivated with great success. Springs of water abound in many districts, while in others the earth, for leagues together, exposes a naked and arid surface, which is only relieved by the periodical rams. Some few extensive forests, comprising, occasionally, trees of enormous magnitude, were met with by recent United States exploring parties ; but large portions of the territory are very scantily wooded. This absence of trees, and the consequent want of moisture and of shel ter to the earth from the sun’s heat, is doubtless a grand obstacle in the way of agricultural improvement ; and years will probably elapse before any great measure of public attention will be directed to the subject. Among the forest trees most common in California are the oak, ash, beech, birch, elm, plane, red cedar, and pine of almost every description.* These abound more pro- fusely near the Pacific shore, and in the vicinity of • * Timber is scattered over several counties, and is quite abundant around Bodaga, San Rafael, Sonoma, Santa Cruz, and a few other lo- calities. The red wood, or soft cedar, is most frequently met with in those quarters. It often grows to thqdircurnference of forty feet, and to a height of three hundred. Near Santa Cruz there is one measuring seven- teen feet in diameter. 26 * 306 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OR rivers communicating with that ocean, thus affording excellent opportunities for ship-building. AGRICULTURE. Although very little information is prevalent in the Atlantic States relative to the farming resources of this El Dorado, we shall show, by statistics and facts, that it is not excelled in this particular by any, other member of the confederacy, and that agricultural pursuits are almost as lucrative, and attended with far more certainty of success, than mining for the “ glittering ore.” There were in this state in 1850, 62,324 acres of im- proved land, and 3,831,571 acres of unimproved land, in farms. Cash value, $3,874,041. In 1857 the number of acres of land improved was 400,000, and 10,000,000 acres of unimproved land, in farms. Cash value of farms, $15,000,000. Value of live stock, $8,000,000. The wheat crop last year was 300,000 bushels ; Indian corn, 96,000 ; oats, 200,000 bushels ; barley, 3,972,000 ; peas and beans, 16,000 ; potatoes, 1,000,000 ; sweet potatoes, 59,000. Value of products of the orchard, $100,000; value of products of the market gardens, $225,000. GOVERNMENT. The chief magistrate is elected for two years ; also the lieutenant governor, who is ex officio president of THE GBEAT WEST. 307 the Senate. The legislature is 'composed of two branches — the Senate, consisting of not less than one third, nor more than one half of the number contained in the other house, elected by districts biennially ; and the Assembly, chosen annually, also by districts, to comprise not less than twenty-four nor more than thirty-sis mem- bers, until the population shall amount to 100,000, when the minimum shall be thirty and the maximum eighty. The legislature convenes annually in January. No lot- teries can be granted, nor charters for banking pur- poses. The circulation of paper as money is prohibited. Corporations may be formed under general laws only. In legislative elections the members vote viva voce. Loans of the state credit are interdicted, and state debts exceeding a sum total of $300,000 cannot be contracted except in certain specified contingencies. The property of married women acquired before or after marriage, and a portion of the homesteads, or other estates of heads of families, are protected by law. The elective franchise is held by all white males 21 years of age, who are citizens of the United States, or Mexicans choosing to become citizens, under the treaty of Quere- taro, and have resided six months within the state. Indians and their descendants are allowed to vote in special cases. EDUCATION. The constitution provides for the establishment and support of a system of free schools, in winch instruction shall be given at least three months in each year. A 308 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OR fund is to be created from various sources, the interest of which is to be inviolably applied to the maintenance of these institutions. This fund must soon become one of great magnitude, for it is to consist of the proceeds of public lands ceded to the state for school purposes, and of the 500,000 acres of land granted to each new state by the general government, together with such percentage on sales of lands within the state as shall be allowed by Congress, and the avails of all estates left by persons dying without heirs. Certain lands are also set apart, the income of which is to be appropriated to the maintenance of a university. POPULATION. So rapidly has the population of California accumu- lated since the first discovery of a gold “ placer,” in February, 1848, and so constantly does the stream of immigration flow on and expand, that the ratio of in- crease, at definite periods, cannot be ascertained with any great degree of accuracy. A comparison of the number of residents in certain localities, at the time of the occupation of Monterey by the United States forces, (July, 1846,) with the estimated number in January, 1851, — a space of four and a half years, — may give some idea of the force and velocity of that great “tide in the affairs of men,” which is setting towards this point from all quarters of the world. At the former date there were but eight towns, or pueblos, within the pres- ent confines of the state, viz., San Diego, with 500 in- THE GREAT WEST. 309 habitants; Pueblo de los Angelos, 2500 ; Santa Barbara, 800 ; Monterey, 1200 ; Santa Cruz, 400 ; Pueblo de San Jose, 1000 ; Yerba Buena, (now San Francisco,) 400 ; Sonoma, 200 ; making a total of 7000. The rest of the territory contained .some 7000 or 8000 besides. At the latter date it was estimated that the residents in Cali- fornia, permanent and temporary, numbered not far from 200,000, one third of whom are engaged in min- ing.* There are towns which, at the close of their first year’s existence, contained from 1200 to 1500 voters. In October, 1850, the monthly mail from the United States conveyed nearly 50,000 letters to California; and there were 22,000 advertised letters in the post office of Sacramento City, then a place of less than three years’ growth. According to the census of 1850, the resident population was 92,569. No member of the American confederacy — perhaps we might safely say, no portion of the earth — has so mixed a population as California, adventurers being found from almost every quarter of the globe ; even the exclusive empire of China has here its representatives * The following estimate, made in April, 1851, is from a public journal printed at Sacramento : In the northern mines, or that scope of country lying north of San Francisco and Feather River, the population is com- puted at 20,000 ; the Yuba, 40,000 ; Bear River, 4000 ; the American Fork, 50,000 ; in the southern mines, or that portion lying south of the American River, 80,000 ; Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys and neigh- borhood, 65,000 ; the coast south of San Francisco, 20,000 ; — making an aggregate of 314,000. It is further estimated that the 100,000 miners have each labored 300 days during the preceding year, and have produced an average of 3} dollars per diem, which gives a total cf $100,000,000. 810 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OR by tens of thousands, whose patient industry makes them useful inhabitants. The Indians also form a large portion of the population. According to a state census, taken towards the close of 1852, the population of California was 264,485 inhabitants, (one county, El Dorado, being estimated,) of whom 151,115 were white males, 29,741 do. females ; 1637 male negroes, 253 fe- male do.; 424 male mulattoes, 98 female do.; 19,675 male domesticated Indians, 12,864 female do. ; 93,344 were citizens of the United States over 21 years of age ; 50,631 male foreigners, and 4360 female do. Of the foreigners, 30,444 were over 21 years of age. The state census of 1855 is not yet complete ; but from the imperfect returns which we have seen, and the statements of the California journals, we believe that 400,000 inhabitants would be a fair estimate. The Sacramento Yalley Railroad is nearly completed to the terminus of first section, a distance of 22j- miles. It is the only railroad in California. THE MINES. The gold region of California is between 400 and 500 miles long, and from 40 to 50 miles broad, following the line of the Sierra Nevada. Further discoveries may, and probably will, increase the area. It embraces with- in its limits those extensive ranges of hills which rise on the eastern border of the plain of the Sacramento and San Joaquin, and, extending eastwardly from 50 to 60 miles, they attain an elevation of about 4000 feet, THE GREAT WEST. 311 and terminate at the base of the main ridge of the Sierra Nevada. There are numerous streams which have their sources in the springs of the Sierra, and receive the water from its melting snows, and that which falls ill rain during the wet season. These streams form rivers, which have cut their channels through the ranges of foot hills westwardly to the plain, and disembogue into the Sacramento and San Joaquin. These rivers are from 10 to 15, and probably some of them 20 miles apart. The principal formation or substratum in these hills is talcose slate ; the superstratum, sometimes pene- trating to a great depth, is quartz ; this, however, does not cover the entire face of the country, but extends in large bodies in various directions — is found in masses and small fragments on the surface, and seen along the ravines and in the mountains overhanging the rivers, and in the hill sides in its original beds. It crops out in the valleys and on the tops of the hills, and forms a striking feature of the entire country over which it ex- tends. From innumerable evidences and indications it has come to be the universally admitted opinion among the miners and intelligent men who have examined this re- gion, that the gold, whether in detached particles and pieces or in veins, was created in combination with the quartz. Gold is not found on the surface of the country, presenting the appearance of having been thrown up and scattered in all directions by volcanic action. It is only found in particular localities, and attended by pe- culiar circumstances and indications. It is found in the bars and shoals of the rivers, in ravines, and in what are called the “ dry diggings.” The rivers, in forming 312 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OR their channels, or breaking their way through the hills, have come in contact with the quartz containing the gold veins, and by constant attrition cut the gold into fine flakes and dust ; and it is found among the sand and gravel of their beds at those places where the swiftness of the current reduces it, in the dry season, to the narrowest possible limits, -and where a wide margin is consequently left on each side, over which the water rushes, during the wet season, with great force. As the velocity of some streams is greater than that of others, so is the gold found in fine or coarse particles, apparently corresponding to the degree of attrition to which it has been exposed. The water from the hills and upper valleys, in finding its way to the rivers, has exit deep ravines, and, wherever it has come in contact with the quartz, has dissolved or crumbled it in pieces. In the dry season these channels are mostly without water, and gold is found in the beds and margins of many of them in large quantities, but in a much coarser state than in the rivers, owing, undoubtedly, to the moderate flow and temporary continuance of the cur- rent, which has reduced it to smooth shapes, not unlike pebbles, but has not had sufficient force to cut it into flakes or dust. The dry diggings are places where quartz containing gold has cropped out, and been dis- integrated, crumbled to fragments, pebbles, and dust, by the action of water and the atmosphere. The gold has been left as it was made, in all imaginable shapes — in pieces of all sizes, from one grain to several pounds in weight. The evidences that it was created in com- THE GREAT WEST. 313 bination with quartz, are too numerous and striking to admit of doubt or cavil ; they are found in combination in large quantities. A very large proportion of the pieces of gold found in these situations have more or less quartz adhering to them. In many specimens they are so combined that they cannot be separated without reducing the whole mass to powder, and subjecting it to the action of quick- silver. This gold, not having been exposed to the at- trition of a strong current of water, retains in a great degree its original conformation. These diggings, in some places, spread over valleys of considerable extent, which have the appearance of an alluvion formed by washings from the adjoining hills, of decomposed quartz, and slate earth, and vegetable matter. In ad- dition to these facts, it is beyond doubt true that several vein-mines have been discovered in the quartz, from which numerous specimens haw 1 been taken, showing the minute connection between the gold and the rock, and indicating a value hitherto unknown in gold mining. These veins do not present the appearance of places where gold may have been lodged by some violent eruption. It is combined with the quartz in all imaginable forms and degrees of richness. The rivers present very striking, and it would seem conclu- sive evidence respecting the quantity of gold remaining undiscovered in the quartz veins. It is not probable that the gold in the dry diggings and that in the rivers — the former in lumps, the latter in dust — were created by different processes. That which is found in the 27 314 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OR rivers has undoubtedly been cut or worn from tlie t eins in the rock, with which their currents have come in contact. All of them appear to be equally rich. This is shown by the fact that a laboring man may collect nearly as much in one river as he can in another. They intersect and cut through the gold region, run- ning from east to west, at irregular distances of fifteen to twenty, and perhaps some of them thirty miles apart. Hence it appears that the gold veins are equally rich in all parts of that most remarkable section of country. Were it wanting, there are further proofs of this in the ravines and dry diggings, which uniformly confirm what nature so plainly shows in the rivers. The gold product of 1855 was -$66,000,000. The total product since the discovery of gold is $356,345,000. COLONEL FREMONT’S EXPLORATIONS. To the energy, talent, and enterprise of the Hon. J ohn Charles Fremont we stand indebted for the most important discoveries and surveys of the western terri- tory of the United States, since the. great expedition of Lewis and Clarke. The first field of his public services was the country around the head waters of the Missis- sippi, in the survey of which he acted as an assistant. After receiving the commission of a lieutenant in the corps of topographical engineers, he undertook an expedition, in 1842, under the instructions of govern- ment, to examine the country between the Missouri THE GREAT WEST. 315 frontier and the Great South Pass, in the Rocky Mountains. On the 10th of June, the party, consisting of twenty- five men, most of whom were Canadian and Creole voyageurs , set out from a post ten miles above the mouth of the Kanzas River. The celebrated Christo- pher Carson (known as Kit Carson) officiated as guide. Eight mule carts, loaded with instruments and baggage, with a few spare horses and four oxen for provision, were the only encumbrances ; the whole party, with the exception of the cart drivers, were well armed and mounted. After crossing the Kanzas, the party took up their line of march over the prairie in a north-west- erly direction to the Platte River, which was reached on the 26th, at a distance of more than 300 miles from the point of departure. They followed the course of the South Fork to Fort St. Train, at the foot of the Rocky Mountains, where they arrived on the 10th of July. Many interesting descriptions are recorded of the Indians encountered on the route : among other incidents, a spirited account is given of a buffalo hunt by a party of Arapahoes, whose village, on the Platte, was passed upon the 8th. As soon as they were con- scious of danger, in the words of the narrative, “ the buffalo started for the hills, but were intercepted and driven back towards the riv^r, broken and running in every direction. The clouds of dust soon covered the whole scene, preventing us from having any but an occasional view. * * * At every instant through the clouds of dust which the sun made luminous, we 310 THE GARDEN OP THE WORLD, OR could see for a moment two or three buffalo dashing along, and close behind them an Indian with his long spear, or other weapon, and instantly again they dis- appeared.” Fremont with his little company reached the South Pass about the middle of August, and commenced a scientific exploration of the rugged mountain district through which it leads. “ He not only fixed the local- ity and character of that great pass, through which myriads are now pressing to California, but defined the astronomy, geography, botany, geology, meteorology, of the country, and designated the route since fol- lowed, and the points from which the flag of the Union is now flying from a chain of wilderness fortresses. His report was printed by the Senate, and translated into foreign languages, and the scientific world looked on Fremont as one of its benefactors.” * The expedition of 1843-4 was far more extensive, interesting, and important than the one which preceded it. Its object was “ to connect the reconnaissance of 1842 with the surveys of Commander Wilkes on the coast of the Pacific Ocean, so as to give a connected survey of the interior of our continent.” In entering upon this arduous undertaking, Colonel Fremont de- termined to attempt a new route over the Kocky Moun- tains, southward of the main pass, in hopes of discov- ering an easier thoroughfare to Oregon and California. On the 29th of May, with a company of thirty-nine Ii2stnr, in the “ Gallery of Illustrious Americans.” THE GREAT WEST. 317 men, many of whom had accompanied him in 1842, he set out from the former point of departure. A detour through the mountains brought them upon the waters of the Bear River, which they followed to its debouchemcnt into the Great Salt Lake. In a frail* boat of inflated India rubber cloth, a partial survey was effected of this remarkable phenomenon of nature, concerning which the only knowledge before obtained had been from the wild reports of the Indians and hunters who had occasionally visited it. Little did the adventurous explorers dream of the change that a few years would bring about upon those remote and deso- late shores. The party left their camp by the lake on the 12th of September, and, proceeding northward, reached the plains of the Columbia on the 18th, “ in sight of the famous ‘ Three Buttes,’ a well-known land- mark in the country, distant about forty-five miles.” In the month of November, having reached Fort Vancouver, and fully accomplished the duties assigned him, Colonel Fremont set out on his return by a new and dangerous route. Nothing but a perusal of the journal of the expedition can convey an adequate idea of the dangers and difficulties attendant upon the remainder of this enterprise, in which the complete circuit was made of that immense and unexplored basin lying be- tween the Sierra Nevada and the Wahsatch or Bear River range of the Rocky Mountains ; a region thus laid down in Fremont’s chart : “ The Great Basin : diameter 11° of latitude : elevation above the sea, be- tween 4 and 5000 feet : surrounded by lofty mountains : 27* 318 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OR contents almost unknown, but believed to be filled with rivers and lakes which have no communication with the sea, deserts and oases which have never been explored, and savage tribes which no traveller has seen or de- ' scribed.” The following synopsis of the narrative of Fremont’s return from the Pacific to the States is from the pen of the popular author before cited. “ It was the begin- ning of winter. Without resources, adequate supplies, or even a guide, and with only twenty-five companions, he turned his face once more towards the Rocky Mountains. Then began that wonderful expedition, filled with romance, achievement, daring, and suffer- ing, in which he was lost from the world nine months, traversing 3500 miles in sight of eternal snows ; in which he explored and revealed the grand features of Alta California, its great basin, the Sierra Nevada, the valleys of San Joaquin and Sacramento, exploded the fabulous Bienaventura, revealed the real El Dorado, and established the geography of the western part of this continent.” The account of the terrible passage of the Sierra Nevada in the months of February and March, is one of the most thrilling narratives ever recorded of the triumph of heroic endurance over every conceivable difficulty. The ascent was commenced on the 2d of February ; the Indian guide “ shook his head as he pointed to the icy pinnacles, shooting high up into the sky,” and opposing an apparently insuperable barrier to f irther progress. After weeks of toil and suffering, THE GREAT WEST. 319 subsisting upon their mules and horses, for whom it was almost impossible to procure sufficient grass and herbage to support life, the party descended the western slope of the Sierra. Two of the men had lost their rea- son from suffering and anxiety : one of them, Derosier, who had staid behind for the purpose of bringing up a favorite horse of Colonel Fremont, on rejoining the party, in the words of the narrative, “ came in, and sitting down by the fire, began to tell us Avhere he had been. He imagined he had been gone several days, and thought we were still at the camp where he had left us ; and we were pained to see that his mind was deranged. * * * The times were severe when stout men lost their minds from extremity of suffering — when horses died — and when mules and horses, ready to die of starvation, were killed for food. Yet there was no murmuring or hesitation.” “ In August, 1844, Colonel Fremont was again in Washington, after an absence of sixteen months. His report put the seal to the fame of the young explorer. He was planning a third expedition while writing a history of the second ; and before its publication, in 1845, he was again on his way to the Pacific, collecting his mountain comrades, to examine in detail the Asiatic slope of the North American continent, which resulted in giving a volume of new science to the world, and California to the United States.” * The events immediately succeeding, although highly Gallery of Illustrious Americans. 320 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OR interesting, as connected with the most important par- ticulars in the political history of the United States, are beyond our limits to record. It is sufficient to state, that throughout the difficulties in which Colonel Fremont was involved, and the lengthened examination to which he was subjected before a court-martial, the sympathies of the public were generally enlisted in his behalf. As a private citizen, he contemplated yet another survey of a southern route through the western terri- tory to California, and we cannot sufficiently admire the ardor and self-reliance with which he entered upon the undertaking, after such fearful experience of the dangers attendant on attempting an unknown passage of the great mountain ranges which must be crossed. To resume the remarks of Mr. Lester : “ Again he ap- peared on the far west : his old mountaineers flocked around him ; and, with thirty-three men and one hun- dred and thirty mules, perfectly equipped, he started for the Pacific. “ On the Sierra San Juan all his mules and a third of his men perished in a more than Russian cold ; and Fremont arrived on foot at Santa Fe, stripped of every thing biit life. It was a moment for the last pang of despair which breaks the heart, or the moral heroism which conquers fate itself. “ The men of the wilderness knew Fremont ; they refitted his expedition ; he started again, pierced the country of the fierce and remorseless Apaches ; met, awed, or defeated savage tribes ; and in a hundred THE GREAT WEST. 321 days from Santa Fe he stood on the glittering banks of the Sacramento.” In the new state where he took up his abode, his popularity and prosperity have been un- surpassed. T HE YANKEES IN CALIFORNIA. At the late forefathers’ celebration at San Francisco, George C. Bates, Esq., who responded to the toast of “ The Mayflower,” said, in substance, that although he was not born in New England, his ancestors came from there ; and after a few general remarks on the history of New England and the character of her people, he went on in the following eloquent strain : — “ What would Standish, and Brewster, and Carver, and Bartlett, who landed over two centuries since, say, could they join us to-night in this jubilee — could they reunite with us on Russian Hill, along the North Beach, and then around Front Street to Rincon Point, and over Mission Creek ? If they can look down from tlieir New England heaven (the heaven of the Pilgrims) upon this wondrous city, rising more like magic than even those created by Aladdin’s lamp, what would they behold ? A parados, that would puzzle Yankee ingenuity to understand ; an antithesis, that the guess- ing propensities of a Connecticut pedler could not elucidate. Let us see what they would say. “ Looking from Russian Hill — a spot rendered fear ful by the execution of the one murderer out of hun- dreds who have deserved death within the limits of our 322 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OR city, who there paid the fearful penalty of blood for blood — let us look into yonder bay. The moon illu- minates the scene ; the city lies beneath us, and its base is washed by the waters that ebb and flow within the Golden Gate. “ First. Let us look at yonder ships. Their taper ing masts, their sharp bows, their breadth of beam, their flying voyages, sometimes making even a speed outvying the paddle wheels of the Golden Gate. The Golden Age, the Stephens, the Sonora, whence did they come ? Whose are they ? Where did the tim- bers grow ? Where were the bolts forged that bind their oak ribs together ? Whose muscle, and arms, and labor riveted their sides, that, thus defying the storms and the tempests of the ocean, they now ride quietly at anchor in the Bay of San Francisco ? “ The answer to our guests — the spirits of those who came over in the Mayflower — would be, ‘ To 'New England belong those clippers which cleave the ocean wave with the lightning speed of the eagle’s wing. Look under their stern ; see their baptismal names and place of birth. All are of New England or New York, and of New England parentage. Baltimore, Norfolk, Charleston, Pensacola, Mobile, New Orleans, Galveston, own none. Without being invidious towards our fellow- citizens of other states than those of New England, I would remark as a fact — a fact to be remembered and pondered upon — that aside from the foreign ships now oi heretofore ir. this port, more than nine tenths THE GREAT WEST. 323 were built, launched, owned, and manned by New Englanders. “ Second. Again descending from the decks of those gallant clippers, we shall show our spiritual guests along our business streets — Front, Battery, Sansome, Montgomery. Behold there New England enterprise, the Macondrays, the Flints, the Husseys, the Hales, and their compeers. Enter all these mammoth ware- houses, filled with the products of every clime on earth. There you behold millions of capital invested in Yan- kee manufactures, in Yankee products, in evidence of New England’s wealth, of New England’s merchants. Let an earthquake shake down this night the business buildings occupied by New Englanders, and save those of our foreign merchants ; what would be left ? The celebrated destruction of Catania would not be more complete. “ Third. San Francisco is not merely a commercial city, but within its borders, in all directions, may be seen the first efforts of young yet growing manufac- tures. The ponderous steam engine hammers, and drills, and bores, and files ; the buzzing saw screeches and cuts ; the driving plane smooths, and tongues, and grooves. Enter any one or all these work places, and underneath the soot and dust, the steam and smoke, you will find there only New England labor. Yankees build, and guide, and govern those ponderous machines, for they were born, and reared, and taught where labor, free and honest labor, was approved of God and made dignified among men. The sunny south, with its balmy 324 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OR skies, its enervating climate, and its own institutions, lias no representative in that busy hive of industry. “ Fourth. But we travel onward from the deck of the Yankee clippers, through the mammoth warehouses of New England merchants, and we shake off the dust, and soot, and smoke of Yankee workshops from our feet, and our hearts are warmed, our souls are elevated, as we look upward to the many (how many !) houses whose pointed spires, rising heavenward, show that they are dedicated to God. The bell summons us to enter, and we do so ; and there, with suppressed breatn, we listen to New England sermons, we join in New England psalms ; we look around upon New England wives, New England husbands, New England children. Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Vermont, Maine, and New Hampshire are all represented there. If you visit, on God’s holy day, the race course, the cock pit, the gambling saloon, the bawdy house, the plank road, you will not find there New England men or New England women, unless indeed they have wan- dered so long from their homes, that their early teach- ings have faded from their hearts, and their memories have grown dull and deaf to their mothers’ prayers. “ Fifth. But we leave the house of God, and we enter the school houses of the city ; and there what shall we show our guests, the passengers in the old Mayflower ? If the mother of the Gracchi could point to her children when her ornaments were demanded, and say, ‘ These are my jewels,’ so may San Francisco, when jeered at for her murders, her robberies, her THE GREAT WEST. 325 bankrupt bankers, her violated laws — so may then San Francisco, her head aloft, lifting her finger over these dark clouds, point to her school houses and their living treasures, richer far than gold, and say, 4 Here, indeed, are my jewels.’ These are New England school houses, New England scholars, New England teachers. I do not mean to say that there are no other children there ; but this I do say, that nine out of ten of those youngsters with rosy cheeks and sparkling eyes are the children’s children of New England. God bless them all ! As San Francisco is in these respects, so is the rest of this El Dorado of the world. “ Such are New England triumphs on the Pacific. Look we now to the other picture — of New England’s degradation, of New England’s humiliation — and there learn the lesson that a New Yorker, of New England parents, would to-night inculcate. It was one of the fundamental principles of the Puritans that every man should have his whole share in the duties, the honors, and emoluments of the republic, of the state. How is it here ? What New Englander, from the formation of the state constitution to this day, has ever been esteemed worthy of public promotion ? What ‘ d d Yankee,’ as you are all styled by the self-sacrificing, public-spirited gentlemen from the west and south who occupy all public places, has ever been called to take any share in the administration of the public affairs of California ? Let us see. I am not a New Englander, nor yet a Californian. While I love this country, its gorgeous skies, its balmy winters, its streams gushing 28 326 THE GARDEN OP THE WORLD, OR forth gold, yet fate has decided that my lot is to bo elsewhere. I speak, then, as a disinterested ‘ looker on here in Vienna.’ “ First. Let us look at the federal appointments to office. What New England man ever dared to aspire to either ? None ! none ! California has had four col- lectors of this port. No Yankee was ever permitted to sit at the receipt of customs — a place occupied by the Pharisees and Sadducees of old, and not much im- proved by San Francisco collectors, if the records speak the truth. 1 wo estimable and worthy gentlemen have performed the respective duties of United States mar- shal — the one from Tennessee, the other, a noble- hearted, generous, murdered man, from the District of Columbia. Two district attorneys, each eminent for their learning, their ability, and their purity of con- duct, have received appointment, one from Kentucky and one from Alabama. Two honest, worthy, and un- spotted judges fill the seats on the federal bench, the one a Knickerbocker of New York, the other a noble specimen from Georgia. Going from these ministerial and judicial departments of the federal government to the legislature, what see you there ? New Englanders ? California has had six representatives in Congress, one of whom alone was, out of all the New Englanders in California, elected. All others, save the lamented Gil- bert, were and are southern men. In that august assemblage, the Senate of these United States, who ever saw the form or face of a New England man speaking, acting, or advising as a California senator ? THE GREAT WEST. 827 Nay, what New England man now, in the face of two vacancies in that body, is thought of, spoken of, dreamed of, or dares even to aspire thereto ? None ! not one ! “ Second. But turn we from the federal officers to that of our domestic government, and see how the ship building, tax paying, church going, water drinking New Englanders fare there. California has had two gov- ernors, one reelected, a man, it is believed, infinitely above his traducers, and neither of these from New England. The young executive, with his blushing honors fresh upon him, traces his lineage through the cornfields of Indiana into the tobacco ground of Ken- tucky. Had he been spotted as ever having seen a New England manufactory or school house, he had never been governor. “ Third. But the judiciary. There are many, very many, able lawyers in California, men of honor, of temperance, of chastity, of purity, who were born and educated in New England. There have been no less than nine Supreme Court judges in California, yet no single one from New England. While I recognize and bear witness to the exalted standing, to the unwavering integrity, to the perfect purity in private as in public life of the distinguished gentlemen who have graced the bench of our Supreme Court, and while the beau- tiful symmetry of the common law has been illustrated by the luminous opinions of gentlemen from New York, Tennessee, Illinois, and Alabama, yet it has struck me as a strange thing that no New England lawyer was ever called to that responsible station. 328 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OR “Fourth and lastly. The legislative department — let us look at this. It hath not happened to me, in my sojourn in California for almost four years, to visit often the legislature of the state ; but it has been my painful duty to read and endeavor to understand the laws en- acted by that illustrious body, and I can easily divine that few Yankees shared in the inglorious duty of making laws which Blackstone emphatically calls hotch-potch. If murderers go unhung, save by mass meeting — if bawdy houses open their horrid doors in our most public streets — if taxes are accumulated like Ossa on Pelion — if gaming continues to seduce its foolish victims — thank God New Englanders are not to blame ! Here and there a straggler may be found in the legislature ; but the bowie knife of Arkansas and the derringer of Tennessee will compel the poor fellow to deny his birthright. Let a score of straight- forward New England men be sent for one single win- ter to the legislature, and although I cannot guess, as I am no Yankee, yet, as a western man, I will bet any reasonable sum that laws can be made and enforced to hang every cold-blooded murderer — to drive the taw- dry cyprian to her dark abiding-place — to close the hell of the gambler — to regenerate California. Why are these things so ? Because New Englanders are not true to themselves.” THE GREAT WEST. 329 COLONEL FREMONT AND ILLS MARIPOSA GRANT. Colonel Fremont has at length got his great Mari- posa estate fully confirmed to him, and may he regard- ed as one of the richest men living. The patent was signed by the president, and delivered by him at the White House to Colonel Fremont in person. Patents are now generally signed by the private secretary of the president, who is thereunto authorized by an act of Congress ; but General Pierce signed this one with his own hand. The instrument is engrossed upon parchment, and covers 12 sheets, including, on a large sheet of parchment, a finely executed map of Las Mariposas, as surveyed by the United States surveyor general. The tract is upwards of 70 square miles in extent, and is situated about 225 miles from San Francisco in an easterly direction. It embraces the town of Mariposa, containing from 3000 to 4000 inhabitants, and a number of other small towns and settlements ; and it is estimated that there are upwards of 15,000 people now on the estate. Colonel Fremont bought this land on the 10th of May, 1846, of Alvarado, ex-governor of California, for three thousand dollars in cash ; and, at the time, the old Californians laughed at it as a very extravagant price. After a long litigation, his title has been fully confirmed by the Supreme Court at Washington. Of the value of Colonel Fremont’s grant it is impos- sible to speak with definiteness, as it is, apparently, 28 * 330 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OR almost beyond calculation. Messrs. Palmer, Cook, & Co., bankers, of San Francisco, who have advanced heavily to pay the taxes upon it, and to defray the enormous expenses of the suit, own one undivided half interest in the property. Colonel Fremont alone owns the other half. Already about $35,000,000 worth of gold dust have been taken from the tract, and the percentage of earth which has yet been worked, even imperfectly, is ex- ceedingly small. This is owing to the scanty supply of water to be found on the tract ; and a canal is pro- jected, at a cost of $600,000, to supply this deficiency. When this is completed, the revenue to be derived from the estate will amount to many millions per annum. SAN FRANCISCO. Court house, San Francisco county. The entrance to the Bay of San Francisco, known as the Golden Gate, is about 3 miles wide, and is formed by a gap or opening, extending 5 or 6 miles through the range of mountains that runs along the coast of California. Table Hill, not far from the northern shore of this strait, is 2500 feet high. Opposite the entrance, just as it opens into the bay, are the Islands of Alcatraz and Yerba Buena. . 30 miles in the distance, nearly due west, rises the peak of Monte Diablo, the highest point of the second or interior coast range, and over- looking every thing between the ocean and the Sierra Nevada. It is between these two coast ranges that the THE GREAT WEST. 331 Bay of San Francisco spreads out, extending in a di- rection east of south upwards of 50 miles, with a breadth varying from 6 or 7 miles, where it turns south, to near 20 in the middle, and diminishing to 2 or 3 at the southern extremity, into which flows the Guadaloupe River, on which, and on the shores of the bay, is some excellent land. At the north, the Bay of San Francisco communicates, by a strait not unlike that of the Golden Gate, with San Pablo Bay, a basin of near 15 miles diameter, into which are discharged, through a deep navigable channel coming from the west and extending in its course into Susan Bay, the united waters of the Sacramento and San Joaquin, the two principal rivers of California. The peninsula between San Francisco Bay and the ocean consists chiefly of barren sand hills. The city of San Francisco lies just within the northern point of the entrance into the bay, upon a deep curve of the shore, and on the sides of 3 hills of sand, which rise steeply from the water, the middle one receding so as to form a bold amphitheatre. The Bay of San Francisco was entered by Sir Francis Brake during his famous expedition to the Pacific in 1578, before any settlements, except those at St. Au- gustine, had been formed on the Atlantic coast of the United States. It was known to the Spaniards 30 years earlier, but was neglected till their occupation of Up- per California, which commenced in 1769, not long after which San Francisco was taken possession of, and was subsequently held by a small garrison, maintained 332 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OR in a little fort just at tlie entrance into the bay, a ham- let of a few houses growing up on the site of the pres- ent city. At the time of the transfer of California to the United States, in 1848, and even as late as April, 1849, San Francisco did not contain more than 30 or 40 houses. But the discovery of gold gave it a sudden impulse, and by the 1st of September, 1849, there were ,500 houses, tents, and sheds, with a population, fixed and floating, of 5000 or 6000. Streets had been regu- larly laid out, and already there were 3 piers at which small vessels could discharge. New buildings, though of the most flimsy description, — the oldest and most substantial of adobes or dried mud, the rest of boards and canvas, — were held, as well as the city lots, at the most extravagant prices. The Parker House, an ordi- nary frame building, of 60 feet front, used as a hotel, rented for $110,000 yearly, and other buildings in like proportion, or at rates still more extravagant. These enormous rents led to a rapid and immense increase of buildings, and, notwithstanding the very high prices of building materials and labor, by the beginning of 1850 San Francisco had become a real city, with some 20,000 inhabitants, spacious and convenient buildings, though mostly of wood, including extensive hotels and ware- houses, many of the frames of which had been shipped round Cape Horn, and others from China. Speculation and prosperity went on increasing till the city received a severe check by three successive fires, by which a vast extent of frame and canvas buildings were swept away, and immense amounts of property destroyed. These THE GREAT WEST. 333 fires led, however, to the erection of fire-proof buildings of brick. The city has also received a great extension by the filling up of shallow water lots by sand from the neighboring hills, upon which many solid and sub- stantial buildings have been built ; and though real estate has greatly declined from its former extravagant prices, to the ruin of many who thought themselves worth millions, the city continues to be improved by the erection of solid and substantial buildings.. Great expenses have also been incurred by the city corpora- tion in the improvement of the streets. From its local situation in reference to the gold re- gion, San Francisco must always remain the great seat of the ocean trade of California. Already it has exten- sive mercantile communications with all parts of the world. It is connected with New York by two lines of steam packets, one by the way of Panama, making the distance in about 4 weeks, a packet leaving either city every fortnight, and carrying the mail ; the other, also a semi-monthly line, by the Lake Nicaragua, which ac- complishes the distance in about 4 days’ less time. The shortest passage from San Francisco to New York has been 21 days. Not only is the trade with the Atlantic ports of the United States very great, but San Francisco lias an ex- tensive commerce with Chili, from which large supplies of flour are derived, and also with China, whence a great influx of emigrants is flowing to California. The tonnage of San Francisco is 230,000, and the freight earnings for 1855, $3,900,000. The excess 334 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OR of exports of produce over imports of produce were $989,000. The number of actual residents in 1857 was about 60,000 ; in 1850, when it became a city, but 15,000. Of course no accurate account can be given of the im- mense floating population, for which this city, above all others in the world, is so distinguished. t THE GREAT WEST. 335 U I Y E n s . OHIO RIVER. The Ohio River, from the extent of the area drained by its waters, the large facilities which it affords to in- ternal commerce, and its relative position in the heart of the country, connecting the largest maritime states with the west, is second in importance only to the Mis- sissippi. It is the great north-east tributary of the “ Father of Waters.” Its general course is from the north-east to the south-west, making about 10° of lon- gitude, and 31° of latitude ; and flowing from the bor- der of New York through Western Pennsylvania, it separates the States of Virginia and Kentucky, on the south, from Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois on the north. Physically considered, the River Alleghany, which rises in Potter county, Pennsylvania, on the west slope of the Alleghany^ Mountains, and which is navigable for boats of 100 tons for 270 miles above Pittsburg, is one river with the Ohio, although it does not receive this name until it forms a junction with the Monongahela, another large tributary of the Ohio, coming down from the Alleghanies in the opposite direction. This river, though a less important stream than the Alleghany, is about equal to it in width at their confluence, and is navigable, at a good stage of water, for boats of a largo 336 THE GARDEN OP THE WORLD, OR size for about 100 miles from its mouth. The Ohio proper is formed by the confluence of these two rivers at Pittsburg, where the elevation is 680 feet above tide water, and 380 feet above the point of junction with the Mississippi. Its average descent is not quite 5 inches to the mile. Immediately below the junction the Ohio is 600 yards wide, and is a placid and beauti- ful stream. The French called it La Belle Riviere , the beautiful river. Its name, however, according to Heckewelder, is an abbreviation of the Indian word Oliiopekhanne , meaning a very white stream, and al- luding probably to the white caps with which its gen- tle surface is covered in a high wind. The physical section of the great Mississippi Valley, which is drained by the Ohio River, lies between latitude 34° 12' and 42° 27', and longitude 78° 2' and 89° 2' west from the meridian of Greenwich. According to Darby and Dwight, who have minutely recorded the elements of these calculations, the distance in a direct line from the sources of the Alleghany to the mouth of the Ohio is 680 statute miles. Yet this is not the longest, nor, in regard to the proportions of the area included, the most central line which can be drawn through the valley of the Ohio. Such a line, extended from the sources of Cattaraugus Creek, in New York, to those of Bear Creek, in Alabama, the extreme distances reached by the north-east and the south-west tributa- res of the Ohio, gives a length of 750 statute miles, i this be considered as the transverse diameter, and another line extending from the Blue Ridge, where the THE GREAT WEST. 337 sources of the Great Kenhawa and those of the Wetau- ga branch of the River Tennessee arise, to the north- west sources of the Wabash, a distance of 450 statute miles, be taken as the conjugate diameter of an ellipse, to the regular form of which the Ohio valley so nearly approaches, the whole area amounts by calculation to over 200,000 square miles. The two opposing inclined planes of this valley are of unequal extent, about in the ratio of 2 to 3, the larger being that which falls to the south-west from the Appalachian Mountains, con- taining an area of 120,000 square miles. This also, declining from a mountainous outline, has a much more rapid declivity than its opposite. The most ele- vated table lands from which the eastern tributaries of the Ohio flow have an altitude of 2200 feet above the bed of the river ; and there is no part, from the sources of the Alleghany to those of the Tennessee, which has a less elevation than 700 or 800 feet. Of course, the declivity in this great inclined plane is much the most rapid as it approaches its apex upon its mountainous border. In this respect the opposite plain, or that on the north-west side of the river, is directly the reverse. The more remote parts of this more gentle declivity, lying near the borders of Lake Erie and of Lake Michi- gan, are, to a great extent, level and marshy, and it is not until the waters running towards the Ohio have travelled far on their courses, that they gradually begin to descend more rapidly towards their recipient, as the face of the country changes slowly from a level into hill and dale. The principal tributaries of the 29 338 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OR Ohio on the east side are the Monongahela, the Great Kenhawa, the Big Sandy, the Kentucky, the Cumber land, and the Tennessee. Those on the west side are the Muskingum, the Scioto, the Miami, and the Wabash. From the difference of feature above mentioned, in the two opposite inclined planes, down which these tributaries descend from the east and from the west, it results that the scenery upon those on the east side, as they are ascended towards their sources in the Appa- lachian chain, becomes more and more bold and pic- turesque, while that upon the western tributaries, as you ascend their streams, becomes more and more tame and monotonous. The scenery upon the Ohio itself par- takes of the peculiarity in this respect which belongs to its eastern tributaries. Descending the l’iver from Pittsburg, the scenery along its banks and hills is highly picturesque and varied ; but these fine features gradu- ally disappear, and are entirely lost long before reach- ing the mouth of the river. Many villages and farm houses are passed through the whole course of the river ; but as the bottom lands on its immediate margin are liable to be overflowed, the inhabitants usually settle a little back, so that the buildings in view give no adequate impression of the population or im- provements of the country. The ordinary current in the Ohio is very gentle, not exceeding, at the me- dium height of water, 2 or 3 miles an hour. In the lowest stages of the water, a floating substance would probably not advance a mile an hour. Like all the western rivers, the Ohio is subject to great THE GREAT WEST. 339 elevations and depressions. The average range between high and low water is 50 feet. Its highest stage is in March, and its lowest in September. It is liable, how- ever, to great and sudden elevations at other times through the year. It has been known to rise 12 feet in a single night. In 1832 an extraordinary flood was experienced, and on the 18th of February the waters flowed at 63 feet above low water mark at Cincinnati. This of course inundated the lower parts of the city. From Pittsburg to the mouth of the Ohio there are as many as 100 considerable islands, besides numerous sand bars and tow heads, as those low, sandy islands are called, which are covered with willows, and are in- capable of cultivation. Some of the islands are very beautiful, and seem inviting as places of residence. Heavy forests cover a great portion of the banks, and limit the prospect from the river ; but they exhibit a beautiful verdure, which is often exuberant with blos- soms. As a channel for navigation, few, if any, of the rivers of the globe equal the Ohio. The only direct cataract in the river is that at Louisville, which is now, for all the purposes of navigation, obviated by a canal, which admits of the passage of the largest steamboats. The river descends here, in its natural bed, 22^- feet in the course of 2 miles. Even over this the boats are able to pass in high water. The average time of the suspension of navigation on the Ohio by the ice in win- ter is 5 weeks. One half of the rest of the year, on ail average, it is navigable by large steamboats hi its whole course. The other half it can be navigated easily only 340 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OR by boats of a smaller draught. Flat and keel boats descend the river at all seasons, but are liable in peri- ods of low water to frequent groundings upon the sand bars, and the necessity sometimes of lightening to get off the boat. Steamboats are sometimes grounded on the bars, where they are compelled to wait in peril for the periodical rise of the river. It is reckoned that the Ohio and its tributaries have not less than 5000 miles of navigable waters. DISTANCES ON THE OHIO. FROM PITTSBURG TO CAIRO. Pittsburg, Middletown, . u Economy, . 23 Freedom, Beaver, .. 34 Georgetown, Liverpool, Wellsville, . 56 Steubenville, Wellsburg, Warren ton, . 91 Bridgeport, Elizabethtown, Sisterville, Newport, Marietta, Parkersburg, Belpr6 Blennerha'Sett Island, ..207 Hockingsport, ..21S Rave n wood, Letaits ville, Pomeroy, Sheffield, Coalplort, ..277 Point Pleasant, Gallipolis, ..293 Millersport Guyandotte Proctorville, Burlington ..338 Cattletsburg, Hanging Rock, Greenupsbuug, ..356 .302 Portsmouth, Rockville,. Vanceburg, ..404 Rome, 411 Concord, 416 Manchester, 423 Aberdeen, 435 Maysville, 435 Charleston, 443 Ripley, 445 Iligginsport, 451 Augusta, 455 Mechanicburg, 462 Moscow. 469 New Richmond, 478 Little Miami River, ... .490 Columbia, 492 Cincinnati, 497 North Bend, 513 Great Miami River, 517 Lawrenceburg, 519 Aurora, 524 Bellevue, 530 Rising Sun, 533 Hamilton, 544 Patriot, 546 Warsaw, 556 Vevay, 566 Kentucky River, 576 Madison, 588 New London, 597 Westport,... 612 Utica, 62S Jeffersonville, 636 Lanesville, 637 Shippingport, 639 New Albany, 640 Portland, 640 West PointJ,.... 660 Brandenburg, 677 Manckport, 678 N orthampton, 686 Amsterdam*. 688 Leavenworth, 696 Fredonia, 700 Alton, 713 Concordia, 723 Stevcnsport, 734 Rome, 734 Cloverport, 744 Carmelton 757 Troy, 763 Lewisport, .. 769 Rock port, 781 Owensburg, '. .790 Enterprise, 796 Newburg, 811 Green River, 817 Evansville, 825 Henderson, 835 Mount Vernon, 861 Uniontown, 876 Wabash River, 881 Raleigh, 887 Shawneetown, 892 Casey ville, 901 Cave in the Rock, 914 Elizabethtown, 921 Golconda, 933 Smithland, 951 Kentucky River, 951 Paducah. 966 Tennessee River, 966 Belgrade, 972 Fort Massacre, 975 Caledonia, 998 Trinity, ..1008 Cairo, 1013 t THE GREAT WEST. S41 MISSISSIPPI El YEP. Tlie largest and most important river of the United States, or of North America. The import, in the Al- gonquin language, of the name Mi.ssi Sepe, is Great River. Whether we consider its great length, its mighty and numerous tributaries, the extent of coun- try which it drains, or the distance to which it is navi- gable, it well deserves the title which the Indians have given to it, “ The Father of Waters.” If estimated by the criterion which is now considered as determining the comparative importance of the great rivers, — the extent of the, area drained by its waters, — it is the fifth, or perhaps the fourth, in rank among the rivers of the earth, and the third among the rivers of the American continent. The basin, or valley, of the Mis- sissippi extends from the Appalachian chain of moun- tains on the east to the Rocky Mountains on the west, and from the Gulf of Mexico on the south to the great lakes and the boundary between the United States and the British possessions on the north and north-west. This great basin is composed of two very unequal slopes, or inclined planes. One, the west, and most extensive, falling east from the Rocky Mountains, has a mean width of about 800 miles ; the other, which declines from the Appalachian Mountains west, has a mean width of about 400 miles. The base line, or line of common depression, follows the valley of the Illinois, 29* 342 THE GARDEN OP THE WORLD, OR and of tlie Mississippi below tlie point where the former unites with the latter. A line drawn from- the Appa- lachian chain, at the source of the Tennessee, to the source of the most north-west tributary of the Missis- sippi, measures a distance of about 2000 miles ; and a line drawn nearly at right angles to this, from the sources of the Red River, to those of the Wisconsin, measures about 1100 miles. The average width of the Mississippi basin is about 550 miles. The extent of surface included in this vast area is about 1,100,000 square miles. This exceeds the aggregate of all the valleys drained by the rivers of the Atlantic slope, in- cluding that of the River St. Lawrence. The principal tributaries of the Mississippi are the Red River, the Arkansas, the White, the Missouri, and the Yellow- stone, from the west, and the Ohio and Illinois from the east. These great rivers, with many others of in- ferior magnitude, draining the different parts of the great basin from which they come, unite with the Mississippi proper, and pour their waters through its channel into the Gulf of Mexico. Above the conflu- ence of the Missouri with the Mississippi, the former, although denoted as a secondary to the latter, is much the larger of the two. But the Mississippi, having been first explored, retains, through its course, the name which it then received. Above the entrance of the Missouri, it is known in common parlance as the Upper Mississippi. The river is called the Mississippi proper, in distinction from this great tributary, so much its superb] r ; inasmuch as, from the natural features of THE GREAT }VEST. 343 the entire basin denominated the Valley of the Missis- sippi, it would seem that the Missouri should bear the same name, or that it is better entitled to be considered as the true Mississippi. The extreme source of the Mississippi was discovered by Schoolcraft, July 13, 1832, to be the Itasca Lake, in 47° 10' north latitude, and 94° 54' west longitude, at an elevation of 1500 feet above the ocean, and 3160 miles from its entrance into the Gulf of Mexico. This is a beautiful sheet of water, of irregular shape, about 8 miles long, situated among hills covered with pine forests, and fed by springs. It has its outlet to the north, which is about 10 or 12 feet wide, and from 12 to 18 inches deep, which, flowing north, passes through Lakes Irving and Traverse. It then turns east, and passes through several small lakes to Lake Cass, which is about 16 miles long, and con- tains several islands. Thence it flows east to Lake Winnipec, and south-east to Little Lake Winnipec, be- low which it receives Leech Lake through an outlet, which was formerly supposed to be the source of the Mississippi. From this point the river expands to a hundred feet in width, and flows through a low prairie country till it reaches the Falls of Peckagama, where it descends about 20 fee't over a rapid of 300 yards. These falls are about 685 miles above the Falls of St. Anthony. All the sources of the Mississippi take their rise in latitude 42° to 48° north, and the general course of the river is south, bearing east in the upper part through about 20 degrees of latitude, to its entrance into the Gulf of Mexico. By this rule of computation, 344 THE GARDEN® OF THE WORLD, OR the length of the Valley of the Mississippi proper is about 400 miles ; but the extent of travel by the course of the river is probably twice this number of miles. It has indeed been estimated higher than this ; but the length of rivers extending far into these remote and sparsely-settled regions of the country has been gen- erally overrated. The gradual declivity of the Missis- sippi valley, however, is so very slight, giving a fall to the waters of not more than five or six inches to the mile upon an average, and the soil through which its channel is made is so tender and easily worn away, that the smallest obstacles in the stream, or the most incon- siderable variations in the surface of the country, have been sufficient to divert the current from an onward direction, and to give it oftentimes a very serpentine and circuitous course. The Mississippi meets with very few falls or rapids in its course. The Tails of St. An- thony, about 2000 miles from its source, terminate the route of steamboat navigation. Down these falls, the river, which is here about half a mile wide, precipitates its waters in a perpendicular descent of about 16 or 17 feet, making, with the descent of the rapids above and below, a fall of about 40 feet. For a long distance be- low it is a clear, placid, and beautiful stream, skirted with wide and fertile bottoms, or alluvial margins, yvhich are under water at the season of floods. A few miles below the mouth of the River Des Moines, and about 100 miles above the entrance of the Missouri, there are rapids of about 10 miles in extent, which, at low water in the summer, occasion considerable imped- THE GREAT WEST. 345 ime.it to the navigation. Where the Missouri enters, the river has a width of a mile and a half; but below this, to the mouth of the Ohio, although the volume of its waters is greatly increased by those of this mighty tributary, the width of the stream is considerably less. Its channel, however, has greater depth, and its cur- rent a more accelerated and turbulent movement. At the lowest stages, 4 feet of water may be found from the rapids of Des Moines to the mouth of the Missouri. Below that point, to the mouth of the Ohio, there are 6 feet in the channel of the lowest places, at low water. Between the mouth of the Ohio and the St. F ranch there are various shoals, where pilots are often per- plexed to find a sufficient depth for their boats during low water. Below that point there is no difficulty at any season, except in finding the right channel. The river washes the entire western border of the State of Mississippi, which it separates from Arkansas and Lou- isiana, for a distance, by the windings of the stream, of 530 miles. A large portion of its banks, in this sec- tion of its course, consists of inundated swamp covered with cypress, excepting occasional elevated bluffs, which rise immediately upon the borders of the river. Natch- ez, the largest and most commercial place in this state, is situated on one of these bluffs, elevated 250 feet above the surface of the river. About 500 miles from its mouth, the Bed Elver enters the Mississippi from the west. This is the last of the tributaries of any consequence which it receives. Next to the Missouri and the Arkansas, it is the largest which comes in from 346 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OR the west, and discharges about as much water as the latter. Here the Mississippi carries its greatest volume of water, as immediately below this it sends off, at in- tervals, several large outlets, which make their way in separate channels to the ocean. Three miles below the mouth of Red River, the Atcliafalaya, or Chiaffalio Ba- you, as it is called, passes off on the west side, which i? supposed to carry off as much water as the Red R*uer brings in. The Atcliafalaya has been supposed P be the ancient bed of the Red River itself, by which it continued its course to the ocean without forming a connection, as now, with the Mississippi. The latter has here effected a change in its course by cutting through the isthmus of a large bend, in consequence of which its main channel does not now pass by the mouth of the Red River. By these changes, it is prob- able there has been some disturbance of the natural course of that river. The Atcliafalaya, inclining to the east of south, enters the hay of the same name in the Gulf of Mexico. The outlet Plaquemine leaves the Mississippi 128 miles below the outlet Atcliafalaya. 31 miles below the Plaquemine, and 81 above New Orleans, is the outlet of La Fourche, which also com- municates with the ocean. Below this there are numer- ous small streams leaving the Mississippi at different points. On the east side the principal outlet is the Iberville, which passes off a little below Baton Rouge, going through Lakes Maurepas, Pontchartrain, and Borgne, into the Gulf of Mexico. In times of flood this outlet carries off considerable water. Between THE GREAT WEST. 347 this outlet on the east and Atchafalaya on the west is included what is called the Delta of the Mississippi. At the distance of 105 miles below New Orleans, by the course of the river, and of 90 miles in a direct line, this majestic river enters the Gulf of Mexico by its several mouths, the principal of which is the north-cast pass, called the Balize, 29° 7' 25" north latitude, and 89° 10' west longitude, and the south-west pass, 29° 8' north latitude, and 89° 25' west longitude. Most of the vessels enter and leave the river by the Balize. The depth of water on the bar, at each of these passes, is from 12 to 17 feet, but much greater immediately within and without. The river is navigable for vessels of any size, which are now for the most part taken up to New Orleans by steam tow-boats, as the most expe- ditious and economical method of reaching the city. Sailing vessels seldom go farther up than Natchez, 322 miles above New Orleans, as the navigation of the river by steamboats is much more convenient. The Delta of the Mississippi, if we regard the efflux of the Atcha- falaya as its apex, and the Gulf of Mexico as its base, stretches over two degrees of latitude and three degrees of longitude. The distance from the outlet of Atcha- falaya to the mouths of the Mississippi is 220 miles. Its breadth varies from 10 miles to 100, and its area amounts to at least 12,00(1 square miles, or one fourth part of the State of Louisiana. The very trifling ele- vation of the Delta, by its acclivity from the ocean, is demonstrated by the fact, that in autumn, when the rivers are reduced to their lowest mark, the tides of 348 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OB the gulf, of only about 2 feet mean elevation, are sen sibly felt in the Atcliafalaya and Iberville, at their efflux from the Mississippi, sometimes even causing the current to flow back from the former into the latter. Prom the physical characteristics of the Delta, it has been supposed by some geographers that the main chan- nel of the Mississippi is changeable. But this must be a mistaken opinion. When the annual inundations occur, the surface of the river is indeed above that of the surrounding country ; and the effect of the action of its powerful current in leaving a greater deposit of alluvion upon its immediate banks than farther back, has been to give them a permanent elevation above the general surface. Nevertheless these superficial banks, which of course are liable to accretion or abrasion in the lapse of time, are as nothing to the deep bed of the stream, which, as in the case of all other rivers, is the deepest valley of the region through which it flows. That this is the character of the main channel of the Mississippi is apparent from the soundings which have been made, showing a depth at the head of the Delta, at the lowest water, of 75 to 80 feet ; of 130 feet near the outlet of La Fourche, at Donaldsonville ; of 100 feet and upwards opposite New Orleans ; and of 75 to 80 feet three miles above the main bars, at its mouth. Comparing these elements -with those of the deepest lake of Louisiana, Lake Pontchartrain, the bottom of which is not more than 18 to 25 feet below the general level of the Delta, the bed of the river is seen to be from 75 to 80 feet below the bottom of the lowest ad- THE GREAT WEST. 349 jacent depression. With the exception of some changes which have been effected, both in and above the Delta, by the cutting off of the necks of isthmuses, formed originally by almost circular bendings in the river, the current of the Mississippi is as effectually and perma- nently confined to its channel as that of any other river. In this phenomenon, such lakes as that of Fausse Riviere, (False River,) of which there are some sis or seven, either formed or forming, have had their origin. This fine lake, in the parish of Point Coupee, 172 miles above New Orleans, was once a bend of the Mississippi. In or about the year 1714, the change above described was effected, from which both the names Fausse Riviere and Point Coupee (Point Cut Off) are derived. By cutting through this narrow neck of land, the Mississippi shortened its course up- wards of 30 miles. Near the new channel the old bed was rapidly filled with alluvion, but in all other parts it retained its original form, and is now a lake, with a margin possessing the usual fertility of the river banks, and occupied with farms and farm houses. From the extent of country drained by the Mississippi, it neces- sarily follows that its spring floods are very great, and of very long continuance. In a mean of ten years, it appears that the swell commences on the Delta, about the end of February, and continues rising to the middle of June, when the waters begin to abate. This long and gradual discharge is occasioned by three causes, depending on the vast extent of the region from which the floods descend : first, varieties of temperature from 30 350 THE GARDEN OP THE WORLD, OR a difference of latitude and an increase of elevation ; second, contrariety of direction* in some of the streams which constitute the sources of the river ; third, the time required for the waters of the Upper Mississippi, of the Missouri, and of other distant regions, to traverse the long distance from the sources tc the mouths of this mighty river. The difference of latitude from the mouths to the remotest sources of the Mississippi is about 20 degrees, and the relative elevation not less than 5000 feet. These elements combined would give a winter climate to the sources of the Missouri or Mis- sissippi, equal to that of Labrador, in latitude 61°, on the Atlantic coast. Permanent snows cover the earth in winter, over the Atlantic slope and Mississippi basin, as low as latitude 31°, the waters from which, it is ob- vious, cannot be simultaneously discharged. The gen- eral course of the flood being south, the spring advances in a reverse direction, and releases in succession the waters of the lower valley, then those of the Ohio, and last those of the Mississippi proper and the Missouri. Rising in latitude 42° to 50° north, and at an elevation of from 1200 to 5000 feet, the higher sources of the Mis- sissippi are locked in ice and snow long after summer reigns on the Delta. Then the course of the Missouri and Yellowstone Rivers is to the north-east at first, for 500 or 600 miles, from which circumstances, together with the slow movement of the waters, it results that the waters of the upper sources of the Mississippi do not reach the Delta before the beginning of August, about 100 days after the breaking up of winter, and THE GREAT WEST. 351 more than a month after the inundation has been abat- ing. The average height of the floods, below the mouth of the Missouri, is 15 feet. From the Missouri to the Ohio it rises 25 feet, and for a great distance below the mouth of the Ohio it rises 50 feet. Before reaching Natchez, the height of the floods begins to decline. At Baton Rouge it seldom exceeds 30 feet, and at New Orleans 12. This gradual diminution in the flood, in the lower part, has been supposed by some to result from the draining through the numerous effluxes of the river, conveying away such considerable portions of its waters by separate channels to the sea. So greatly does the quantity of snow and rain differ in different years, that it is quite impossible, even for those who have had the longest experience, to anticrpate, with an approach to certainty, the elevation which the flood will attain in any given year. Some years the waters do not rise above their channels, and no inundation takes place. As the banks of the river in the Delta, from the cause above noticed, are higher than the general level of the country, constituting an alluvial margin of from half a mile to a mile and a half wide, it be- comes important to protect some of the more valuable tracts in the rear from the annual overflow of the river, from which they could not easily be drained. For this purpose an artificial embankment has been raised at great expense upon the margin of the river, called the Levee. On the east side this embankment commences 60 miles above New Orleans, and extends down the river more than 130 miles. On the west side it com- 352 THE GARDEN OP THE WORLD, OR mences 172 miles above New Orleans. The vast trade of the Valley of the Mississippi centres at New Orleans. Vessels are often from 5 to 30 days ascending the river to this port, unless they employ the steam tow-boats, though they will often descend with a favorable wind in 12 hours. Before the introduction of steamboats it required 8 or 10 weeks to go to the mouth of the Illi- nois. The use of steamboats has nearly superseded all other vessels for ascending the river. Boats of 40 tons ascend more than 2000 miles, to the Falls of St. An- thony. The passage from Cincinnati to New Orleans and back has been made in 19 days. The first steam- boat on the western waters was built at Pittsburg in 1811, and there are now over 300 on the Mississippi and its tributaries, many of them of great burden. By the opening of the Illinois Canal from Chicago to the head of navigation in the Illinois Kiver, a connection has been formed between the waters of the River St. Lawrence and the Mississippi, of sufficient draught to admit the passage of small vessels, laden with their cargoes of merchandise. Some time in the autumn of 1849, the first vessel was reported at New Orleans as having arrived from the St. Lawrence, via the Welland Canal, the great lakes, the Illinois Canal and River, and the Mississippi. Returning by the Atlantic coast, she might then have circumnavigated the United States. THE GREAT WEST. 353 DISTANCES ON THE MISSISSIPPI. ST. LOUIS TO NEW ORLEANS. St. Louis, 0 Jefferson Barracks, .... 9 Harrisonville, 28 Herculaneum, 30 Selma, 34 St. Genevieve, 59 Chester, 75 Bain bridge, 120 Cape Girardeau, 132 Commerce, 144 Cairo(mouth of Ohio K.) 172 Columbus, 190 Hickman, 205 New Madrid, 247 Little Prairie, 277 Obion River, 306 Ashport, 314 Osceola, 326 Fulton, 336 Randolph (mouth of Hatchie River), 347 Greenock, 380 Memphis, 414 Commerce, 441 Peyton, 474 Sterling (mouth of St. Francis River), 4S6 Helena, 496 Delta, 506 Victoria, 571 Montgomery’s Point, ..572 Napoleon (mouth of Arkansas River) 592 Bolivar Court House,. .604 Columbia, 657 Princeton, 702 Providence, 731 Yazoo River, 792 Vicksburg, 804 Warrenton, 814 Carthage, 833 Grand Gulf, 860 Ruinsburg, 870 Rodney, 880 Natchez, 911 Ellis Cliffs, 929 Homochitta River, . . . .955 Fort Adams, 965 Red River Island, 976 Point Coupee, 1036 St. Francis ville, 1036 Port Hudson, 1047 Baton Rouge, 1072 Plaquemine, 1095 Donaldsville. 1129 Jefferson College, . . . .1148 Red Church, 11S6 Carrollton, 1206 La Fayette, 1210 New Orleans, 1212 ST. LOUIS TO THE FALLS OF ST. ANTHONY St. Louis, 0 Missouri River, 18 Alton, 21 Grafton, 39 Illinois River, 41 Gilead, 73 Hamburg, 83 Clarksville, 96 Louisiana, 107 Hannibal, 132 Quincy, 150 La Grange, 160 Tully, 167 Warsaw, 184 Des Moines River, 184 Keokuk, 188 Montrose, 200 Nauvoo, 200 Madison, 210 Burlington, 230 Oquawka, 247 New Boston, 266 Iowa River, 267 Muscatine, 292 Fairport, 299 Andalusia, 309 Rock Island, 318 Davenport, 318 Hampton, 329 Parkhurst, 337 Albany, 356 Lyons, 365 Charleston, 380 Savannah,. 382 Belleview, 401 Fever River (to Galena 6 miles), 408 Dubuque, 428 Peru, 436 Cass ville, 459 Gotten burg, 465 Wisconsin River, 485 Fort Crawford, 487 Prairie du Chien, 4S9 Upper Iowa River, . . . .527 Bad Axe River, 539 Root River, 562 Black River, 574 Chippewa River, 642 Maiden's Rock, 667 Lake Pepin, .667 St. Croix River, 702 St. Paul, 72S Mendota 733 Fort Snelling, 733 St. Anthony, 740 MISSOURI RIVER, The sources of this great river take their rise in the Rocky Mountains, and some of their springs are within a mile of other springs which discharge themselves west, through the Columbia River, into the Pacific Ocean. The three principal streams which constitute 30 * 354 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OR the head waters of the Missouri are the Jefferson, the Madison, and the Gallatin, which unite at the same point in latitude 45° 10' north, and longitude 110° west. From their confluence at this point, the river takes the name Missouri, and flows onward, receiving numerous • tributaries in its course, through a distance of more than 3000 miles, to its junction with the Mis- sissippi, in latitude 38° 51' north, and longitude 90° west. Its course is at first north and north-east, to tho mouth of White Earth River, latitude 47° 25' ; thence south-east about 220 miles, to the Mandan villages, or Indian settlements. From this point, the river takes a south course, through a distance of several hundred miles ; and then, being inflected more to the east, it pursues this general direction to the Mississippi. Al- though it loses its name at its confluence with the Mis- sissippi, it is, before it reaches this point, much the ’ongest and largest river of the two, and, physically- considered, is entitled to be denominated the principal, rather than the secondary. The Missouri is already a very large river, when* it approaches and passes the sources of its very inferior rival. If it be ranked ac- cording to physical preeminence, as including the Mis- sissippi from its confluence with that river to its mouth, it has an entire length of about 4350 miles, and is prob- ably the longest river of the earth. Ranking it as a secondary to the Mississippi, and having reference to the area drained by its channel, it is the largest river of that class in the world. A direct line drawn along its valley, from its junction with the Mississippi River THE GREAT WEST. 355 to the head of Maria’s River, one of its most north-west sources, is nearly 1400 miles in extent, and the width of the upper valley of the Missouri, as that part is called which is above the confluence of the Yellowstone, is not less than 600 miles across the sources, and has a mean of 300 miles in the general direction of the streams. The entire valley, drained by the Missouri proper, includes an area of 523,000 square miles, or a surface more than double that of the whole Atlantic slope of the United States. The upper valley of the Missouri presents a surface, on the west side, broken by mountains, and gradually spreading into plains, as the rivers descend in their courses. The whole face of the country, with partial exceptions along the rivers, is open prairie, exhibiting a strong resemblance to the steppes of Asia, in nearly the same latitude. The sur- face of the lower valley is also extensively occupied with prairie, the alluvial and fertile soil on the rivers not having a very great breadth. The first large trib- utary of the Missouri is the Yellowstone. This river, 800 yards wide at its mouth, and probably the largest tributary of the Missouri, enters it on the south-west side, about 1800 miles from its junction with the Mis- sissippi. The Yellowstone, at its junction, is as large as the Missouri. Steamboats ascend to this point, and can ascend farther by either branch. After their junc- tion, the united waters of the Yellowstone and Missouri form a river as large in volume, and as wide and deep, probably, as at its entrance into the Mississippi. Chi- enne River, 400 yards wide at its mouth, enters the 356 THE GARDEN OP THE WORLD, OR Missouri on the south-west side, 1310 miles from its mouth ; White River, 300 yards wide, enters it on the south-west side, 1130 miles from its mouth ; Big Sioux River, 110 yards wide, enters it 853 miles from its meuth, on the north-east side ; Platte River, 600 yards wide, enters it on the south-west side, 600 miles from its mouth ; Kanzas River, 233 yards wide, enters it on the south-west side, 340 miles from its mouth ; Grand River, 190 yards wide, enters it the north-east side, 240 miles from its mouth ; La Mine River, 70 yards wide, enters it 200 miles from its mouth ; Osage River, 397 yards wide, enters it on the south-west side, 133 miles from its mouth ; and Gasconade River enters it on the south-west side, 100 miles from its mouth. The largest of these tributaries are navigable from 100 to 800 miles. Through the whole course of the Missouri there is no serious obstruction to the navigation, except, perhaps, from the shallowness of the water, during the season of the greatest drought, before arriving at Great Palls, about 260 miles from the Mississippi. The Missouri is over half a mile wide at its mouth, and through the greater part of its course it is wider than this. It is a rapid and turbid stream, and generally carries along a powerful volume of water but owing to its passing through a dry and open country, and being subject to extensive evaporation, it becomes low at certain seasons, hardly affording sufficient water for steamboat navi- gation. Prom much greater relative elevation, from higher latitudes, and from the peculiar courses of some of its tributaries, the flood in the Missouri is the latest THE GREAT WEST. 357 in order, and does not reach the Mississippi proper until after the flood in that river, the Ohio, Arkansas, and Red Rivers, have in great part subsided. At the Great Falls, distant about 2600 miles from the Missis- sippi, the river descends, by a succession of rapids and falls, 375 feet in about lG^- miles. The lower and greatest of these falls has a perpendicular pitch of 87 feet, the .second of 19 feet, the third of 47 feet, and the fourth of 26 feet. These falls, nest to those of Niaga- ra, are the grandest on the continent. At the distance of 110 miles above these falls is a remarkable passage of the river through the mountains, denominated the Gates of the Rocky Mountains. The scenery at this place is exceedingly grand. For a distance of about 6 miles, the rocks rise perpendicularly from the margin of the river to an elevation of 1200 feet. The river is compressed to the width of 150 yards, and for the first three miles there is only one spot, and that only of a few yards, on which a man could stand between the water and these perpendicular walls of the mountain. Nothing can be imagined more gloomy and impressive than the passage through this deep chasm. DISTANCES ON THE MISSOURI. ST. LOUIS TO COUNCIL BLUFFS. St. Louis, 0 Mouth of Missouri Riv., 18 St. Charles, 42 Missouriton. 63 Newport, 89 Griswold City, 97 Hermann, 113 Portland, .130 Cote sans Dessein,. . . .150 Jefferson City, 160 Marion, 177 Nashville, 187 Rocheport, 200 Boonville, 211 Arrow Rock, 226 Glasgow, 238 Chariton. 241 Grand River, 261 Reedsburg, 284 Lexington, .311 Camden, 328 Sibley, 344 Livingston, 361 Kanzas River, 381 Parksville, 389 Little riatte River,. . . .391 Fort Leavenworth, ... .41 1 Weston 413 St. Joseph, 478 Nodoway River, 492 Wolf River, 508 Great Nemaha River,.. 526 Nishnebotna River, . . .551 Little Nemaha River,. .563 Nebraska River, 633 Bellevue, 645 Council Bluffs, 685 858 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OR PACIFIC BAILUOAD. SPEECH OF IION. THOMAS H. BENTON, OF MISSOURI, In the House of Representatives, January 16, 1855, On the Physical Geography of the Country between the States of Missouri and California , with a View to show its Adaptation to Settlement , and to the Construction of a Railroad. The House being in the Committee of the Whole on the state of the Union, on the Pacific Railroad Bill — Mr. BENTON said : Mr. Chairman : I have desired for some time past to change the plan of making this road — to withdraw it from legislative authority, where political and sectional interests must always interpose — and leave it to a company of business men, where business considerations could only prevail; for this is a case in which private interest and public interest would go hand in hand, that which would be best for one being best for the other; and so insuring the selection of a route which would be most national, because most suitable to the greatest number. With this view I have turned my attention to private enterprise, and have found solid men who are willing to take the preliminaty steps now, preparatory to the final assumption of the work — Congress granting the necessary authority, and conferring the right of way through its territories, one mile wide on each side of the road. No military protection — no alternate sections — no gift of money — no aid but the right of way, and payment for transportation of mails, troops, and munitions, according to a plan not yet matured. Telegraphic lines to be established or permitted, and transportation to begin before the road is finished, by using stage coaches for the remainder, according to a plan which may be agreed upon. No exclusive privilege, except in two degrees on each side of the road, to keep off competition, leaving all the rest- of the country open to other roads. The substitute bill which I propose contains the names of some of these citizens, and with whom other solid men will deem it a privilege to be associated — not that all will be expected to be millionnaires, but only good for what they j romise ; for it is not intended that straw men THE GREAT WEST. 359 or wind men shall get control of this undertaking. The consent of those in the bill will be necessary to the admission of every new associate ; but after the act shall be accepted, books of subscription are to be opened ill every state of the Union, and the stock divided into convenient shares, to suit short as well as long purses. Congress has ordered surveys of routes : they are not ready ; but that is no impediment to the adoption of my substitute, which fixes no route, but leaves it to the company to choose their own ; and no company, using their own money, will act upon any surveys but their own. Such a com- pany will look before it leaps ; and if it did not, it would not leap long. It will send out its own surveyors — practical engineers and road makers — to report upon every mile of the way, and under every aspect of cost and feasibility. To such a company the government surveys are not wanted, even if ready, and made properly, in winter as well as summer ; and, in fact, they were not intended for a company, but for Congress — intended to enable Congress to fix the route itself — a consummation which it is now found to be impossible to attain. I would have preferred that Congress should have made the road, as a national work, on a scale commensurate to its grandeur, and let out the use of it to companies, who would fetch and carry on the best terms for the people and the gov- ernment. But that hope has vanished, and the organization of Kanzas -having opened up the country to settlement, and placed it under law, and carried it into conjunction with Utah and New Mexico, a private com- pany has become the resource and the preference. I embrace it as such, utterly scouting all plans for making private roads at national expense — of paying for the use of roads built with our land and money — of bar- gaining with corporators or individuals for the use of what we give them — a species of bargaining in which my observation informs me that the government gets about as badly cheated as Moses Primrose was when he sold the colt which had been in the family nine years ; and as much worse as his father was when he undertook to help out the matter by selling Blackberry. I presume every member knows how that was : for I would he sorry to suppose that any one, possessed of the English language, had lived to man’s estate without enjoying the luxury of reading the Vicar of Wakefield. For my part, I have been reading it since I was five years old, and with augmented enjoyment every time, and especially since they have got to putting pictures in it, and above all, that picture of Moses sell- ing the colt for a gross of green spectacles with silver rims and shagreen cases ; a picture for which the United States sit every time Congress undertakes to make a bargain for the public. I eschew all such bargains, and all private roads made at public expense, but am willing to have as many as any one pleases upon the same terms as contained in my substi- tute — and there will be room for several such ; but I do not think another will be built in our day. I prefer the central route ; the administration eschews that route, and lays out its strength in favor of frontier routes, by Canada and Mexico. It sent a surveying party on the central, but only to go a part of the way and turn round — leaving the essential section between the Little Salt Lake and the valley of the San Joaquin unexamined. Mr. Fremont supplied that omission last winter, exploring a new and direct route between those points, and through the Sierra Nevada — completing all that was wanting in that quarter. This new route cut off the elbow to the 360 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OR south-west made by the old Los Angeles trail, avoided the desert which it crossed, and left far to the south those excitable sand fields, in which no number of horses can leave a track — in which what is a hillock to- day is a hole in the ground to-morrow — where, under a gentle breeze, the sands creep like an army of insects — where the traveller who lies down to sleep during the night in a light wind must rise and shake him- self often to avoid being buried in the sand ; and where, during a high wind, the air is filled with a driving tempest of silicious particles, very cutting to the skin and eyes, very suffocating to the throat, very danger- ous to men who are not tall and swift — where men arid animals fly for their lives when they feel the wind rising, and where this administration would carry the road. Fremont’s new discovery avoided all that, but without conciliating our administration. Frontier and foreign routes monopolize their affection and engross their cares, involving, in my opinion, at least in one instance, a misapplication of the appropriation for the survey of routes. I allude to the Puget Sound route, skirting the British line all the way, going where nobody travels, where nobody lives, and where nobody can now want a road except the British fur company, and a certain chartered company, of which Mr. Robert J. Walker and Mr. James Duane Doty are the heads, and which route the debates in Congress show was not within the contemplation of the law when the appropriation was made. I nominated it a British road from the time the survey was ordered, but did not expect to have any other evi- dence of it than what the case itself afforded ; but I now have other evi- dence, and produce it. Here it is ! ( holding up a document,) and I pro- ceed to read from it ; and, first, of the title, which runs thus : — “ Canada. 1st session, 5th Parliament, 18th Victoria, 1854. Petition of the Hon. Augustus N. Morin, and others, praying for a charter by the name of the ‘ Northern Pacific Railway Company,’ &c., &c. Ordered by the Legislative Assembly to be printed, November 30, 1854. Presented by the lion. Mr. Young, Quebec: Printed by Lovell & Lamoreux, Mountain Street. Reprinted by Ira Berry, Portland, Maine.” I give the whole title, but only a part of the contents, beginning at page 4, thus : — “ From information furnished by the report of his excellency Governor Stevens, we en- tertain no doubt, not only that a practicable route exists in this direction, from the head of Lake Superior to Puget’s Sound, and the mouth of the Columbia River, but that this is by far the best, if not the only possible, route for a railway to the Pacific, north of El Paso, near the thi rty-second parallel of north latitude. It is also believed that, after crossing the Rocky Mountain summit, a favorable and direct route may be found to San Francisco. Assuming the correctness of the foregoing propositions, it will be perceived at a glance that at some point or place in the valley of the Missouri River, not far from the great bend of that river, there will be found a focal point to which all the railways of the continent, east of the Rocky Mountains, reaching westward towards the Pacific, will naturally converge, as to a common point of junction and intersection.” Thus it was Governor Stevens’s survey which put this Canadian com- pany on the scent of a North Pacific Railway, by the head of Lake Supe- rior, to Puget’s Sound ; and, as the administration sent this governor on that survey, ergo the administration put this company on that scent. All that is clear enough. We see where the impulsion comes from. But not quite so visible the source of the next proposition, which outlaws all the country for a road north of El Paso, in latitude 32°, clear out to the Puget Sound route, in (near) latitude 49°. They do not tell where. THE GREAT WEST. 361 they get that information, which nullifies 17 degrees of latitude for a road, including the only latitudes on which people travel voluntarily, and over which some 10,000, 20,000, 50,000 people travel every year, with flocks and herds, and all sorts of vehicles, from a road wagon to a wheelbarrow. The source of this information is invisible ; but it cor- responds with official notions here, and also with the bill under consid- eration, as it stood when first reported, providing for one road south of 37° and one north of 47°, leaving the 10 intermediate degrees, and which cover all the voluntary travelling, to remain destitute of a federal road. There is, however, consolation in the declaration that it is “ be- lieved ” that there is favorable ground for a direct road to San Francisco after crossing the mountains on the Puget Sound line ; and also in the prospect of finding a focal point at the north bend of the Missouri, in north latitude near 49°, and west longitude 105° from London, where all the railroads of the continent east of the Rocky Mountains can have their conjunction and intersection. We proceed to another reading at page 5, thus : — “From this point eastward, along the southern shore of Lake Superior, to the Sault St. Mary, crossing the river at that point, and continuing along the northern shore of Lake Huron, till the valley of the Ottaway is reached, it is believed that an uninter- rupted, practicable, and favorable route for a railway'may be found ; from the bend of the Missouri to Montreal; which is already connected by railway with the Atlantic Ocean at Portland.” Montreal ! That is to be the eastern terminus of this American- British road, which is to run half way on one side of 49°, and half way on the other, and which is to have a branch to the Atlantic Ocean at Portland, in Maine. Now, leaving out all other considerations, I would wish to know who is to have the use of this road in the case of war with Great Britain — whether it is to be used in common, to carry on hos- tilities against each other, or whether each nation is to be confined to its own half, and neither be so naughty as to interrupt the other. That is a question for West Point to answer ! Let us read on, same page : — “ We deem it quite unnecessary in this connection to enter into any argument show- ing the value or the necessity of such an undertaking as a railway to the Pacific. It is enough to justify us in a movement in this direction to know that similar efforts are now making at several points in other parts of the United States, for which char- ters have been granted, and considerable progress made to carry them into effect.” That is the inducement to this Northern Pacific Atlantic Railway — other chartered companies, in other parts of the United States, making efforts in favor of similar roads, and considerable progress made in carry- ing them into effect. I know but one such chartered company, and that is twin sister to the British route, and as far to the south as the other is to the north, and of which Robert J. Walker, Samuel Jaudon, and Thomas Butler King are leading corporators. Nor do I know of any progress they have made, except in the 10,000,00u purchase of a tract for "them by the United States. Nor do I know of any progress they can make, unless they get hold of Texas land or United States land. Still the notice is kind, and shows that the British road has a fellow- feeling and a sympathy for the Santa Anna road. One other reading, and we finish : — v “ That magnificent domain of the United States, drained by the head waters of tha 31 3G2 THE HARDEN OF THE WORLD, OR Mississippi, the Missouri, and the Ked River of the north, lying north of the 14th paral- lel of latitude, would find in this route its easiest and most direct outlet to the Atlantic sea shore. From Fort Mandan, or from the great bend of the Missouri, to tlio Atlantic Ocean at Portland, the distance would be less, by hundreds of miles, than by following the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers to their common mouth at New Orleans. If the waters of these mighty rivers could be turned into Lake Superior, and be at the same time navigable for steamboats, so that the magnificent chain of inland seas which now finds outlet through the St. Lawrence, extended, unbroken, westward to the bases of the Rocky Mountains, we might form some idea of the value and importance, to all who dwell within the St. Lawrence basin, of the plan herein proposed. The extension of such a line of railway across the continent, over the route proposed, would, as we be- lieve, confer upon Canada and the Northern States of the Union a degree of commercial and political importance beyond our present power to describe, or even to conceive.” Certainly this looks like annexing a slip of our Union to Canada five degrees wide, for the political and commercial benefit of the aforesaid Canada and the Northern States. Not only make a British road, but turn our great rivers into Queen Victoria’s dominions — a thing more practical than speculative, as may be seen by observing the equilibrium of the British and American waters above the Falls of St. Anthony, and at the turning point in the great bend of the Missouri. Certainly it would be a relief to the Missouri and Mississippi to be so turned, as they could rest one half the year in the torpidity of congelation; whereas, if they continue going to the Gulf of Mexico, they will have no such chance of rest, and must remain running all the time. But whence this conception, so new and so striking 1 It smells of science — West Point science ; but the administration must stand father for it, as the diversion of the rivers is certainly a derivation from the road ; and the road is a derivation from the administration ; ergo the administration is father, or, at all events, grandfather, to this proposed alienation of our rivers — pride and glory of the Great West. This is too bad. It was bad enough to soli the snag-boats and render impossible any speedy removal of the snags, even under an act confined to great rivers — to those which are kings of floods ; but to give them to the British, that is too bad ! and we of the west must insist on keeping them, snags §nd all, and trust to swimming and luck to save lives when a hole is knocked in the bottom of the boat, and the boat itself descends to the bottom of the river. Then follow the signatures, 18 in number, and divided like a jury, de medietatelingu.ee , to try a foreigner for his life, half and half — the Ca- nadians on one side and the Americans on the other, thus : — I dismiss this British route, with the remark that (he execution of the survey was in keeping with the misapplication of the funds which made it — as abortive and costly as the object itself was useless and anti- national. The Mexican route is the next great favorite of this administration; and this they have purchased from Santa Anna for 10,000,000 of federal A. N. MACNAB, M. P. P., A. N. MORIN, M. P. P., JACOB DEWITT, M. P. P., A. T. GALT, M. P. P., HENRY SMITH, M. P. P., J. CIIABOT, M. P. P., JOHN YOUNG, M. P. P., JOHN EGAN, M. P. P., IRA GOULD. JOHN A. POOR, ST. JOHN SMITH, J. B. BROWN, ELIPIIALET GREELY, CHARLES Q. CLAPP, WILLIAM W. THOMAS, J. M. WOOD, A. W. H. CLAPP, JOHN MUSSEY. THE GREAT WEST. 863 dollars, when Mr. Robert J. Walker publishes that he was purchasing the same from the same character for $6500 in money and half a million in Texas railroad stock. This route passes through Chihuahua and So- nora, and may well be called the Mexican road, and is intended to go to New San Diego, which is south of Old San Diego, in the south-west corner of California, and where a crew of official speculators have laid off a town, and built government houses, — by what authority I know not, — and where, reaching the Pacific 500 miles short of San Francisco, it is intended there shall be a virtual, if not an actual termination of the road, and San Francisco superseded by New San Diego as the commer- cial emporium of the American Pacific coast. If things have not mis- carried, this road was to fall into the hands of the company, the leading member of which (Mr. Robert. J. Walker) is also in the charter for the British road, and whose brother-in-law (Mr. Emory, of the Topograph- ical Corps) is at the head of the survey department of these routes, and is out at present on the Mexican line, fixing the boundary for the new route through Sonora and Chihuahua. I assume this Mexican route to be the favorite of the administration, and that the surveys on the Central route, on the New Mexico route, and the Gila route, were only “ tubs to the whale,” to amuse the spout- ing fish, while they were preparing for the real game ; and my reason for that assumption is this — that they bought it pending these surveys! which must stand for proof that they rejected the other routes, and meant to have this, cost what it might, and actually contracted for it at $20,000,000, which the Senate reduced to $10,000,000, thus balancing the British road in the north by a Mexican one in the south, forcing travel to go where no man goes voluntarily, and outlawing the whole interme- diate country where alone all the travelling is. Mr. Chairman, in a speech on this subject at the last session, I stated that it was said that this Mr. Emory was interested ‘-in” the city of New San Diego. He contradicted the statement promptly, rudely, and truly. My informant immediately apprised me that I had committed a mistake in using the preposition “ in ; ” that the gentleman’s interest was not “ in ” the city, but outside of it ; not in city lots, but in suburban land. And now, being thus corrected, I seize the first suitable occasion to make the amends, and to secure to this official all the difference that can be detected between an interest inside and outside of this intended grand emporium of the Pacific trade. Sir, I make no comparison of routes. I am willing to vote to a pri- vate company, which will make this Mexican road at its own expense, the same facilities which I ask for the company for which my substitute bill provides ; but am not willing to make a national road outside of the nation ; not willing to make a private road at public expense ; not willing to give to any company the 30 miles wide alternate sections, the $600 a mile mail pay, and the every 20 mile military posts which this bill proposes ; and that, while going a thousand miles round, and upon soil not yet naturalized, and through states as well as territories, and across deserts in which a wolf could not make his living; over arid plains in which a poisoned rat could not get a drink of water ; and through am bulatory sands in which the army of Xerxes could not leave a track. There are some things too light for reason, too grave for ridicule, too 'mis-hievous for the contempt of silence ; and into that category I put all 364 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OR these exterritorial roads which seek foreign soil, which go where . <. body lives, which would require a legionary police to protect in time ol peace, and armies to protect in time of war, and which would be of no use to our United States either in peace or war. Yet these outside highways seem to be the cherished objects of this administration, and of ail the “ scientific corps ” also. It is not only the British road by Canada, and the Mexican road by Chihuahua and Sonora, which they cherish, but worse still ; a foreign route by land and water — the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, at the price of money and diplomacy ; at the cost of quarrels and even war with Mexico for a Sloo or Garay ; at the cost of a double ocean voyage, and a land transit under a foreign flag; at the cost of a conquer ing navy to protect it, and a circuit of 5000 miles round. The bare re- cital of such folly is the only chastisement it will endure ; and even that much it would be ridiculous to give, if the authors of such insanity were not now in power, wielding the influences of legislation, diplomacy, patronage, and surveys, in promotion of their object. Surely the ten- dencies of this administration are most centrifugal. I make no comparison of routes, but vindicate the one I prefer from erroneous imputations, and invite rigorous examination into its charac- ter. The belt of country, about 4 degrees wide, extending from Missouri to California, and of which the parallels 38 and 39 would be about the centre, this belt would be the region for the road ; and of this region, its physical geography and adaptation to settlement, and to the construc- tion of the road, it is my intention to speak, and to publish, as part of this speech, something of what I have spoken elsewhere, but do not now repeat, because unnecessary here, but essential to the full exposition of the subject in the prepared and published speech. I have paid some attention to this geography, induced by a local po- sition and some turn for geographical inquiry ; and, in a period of more than 30 years, have collected whatever information was to be obtained from the reading of books, the reports of travellers, and the conversation of hunters and traders, and all with a view to a practical application. I have studied the country with a view to results, and feel authorized to believe, from all that I have learned, that this vast region is capable of sustaining populous communities, and exalting them to wealth and power ; that the line of great states which now stretch half way across our continent in the same latitudes — Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri — may be matched by an equal number of states, equally great, between Missouri and California ; and that the country is perfectly adapted to the construction of a railroad, and all sorts of roads, traversable in all seasons. This is my opinion, and I proceed to verify it : and first, of the five states, their diagrams and relative positions ; and then their capabilities. The present Territory of Kanzas, extending 700 miles in length, upon 200 in breadth, and containing above 100,000 square miles, would form two states of above 50,000 square miles each. A section of the Rocky Mountains, embracing the Three Parks, and the head waters of the South Platte, the Arkansas, Del Norte, and the eastern branches of the Great Colorado of the, West, would form another state larger — in the opinion of Fremont — than all the Swiss cantons put together, and pre senting every thing grand and beautiful that is to be found in Switzer- land, without its drawback of avalanches and glaciers. The valley of THE GREAT WEST. 365 the Upper Colorado, from the western base of the Rocky Mountains to the eastern base of the Wahsatch and Anterria ranges, 200 miles wide by 200 long, and now a part of Utah, might form the fourth ; and the remainder of Utah, from the Wahsatch to California, would form the fifth, of which the part this way, covering the Santa Clara meadows, and Wahsatch and Anterria ranges, would be the brightest part. Here, then, are five diagrams of territory, sufficient in extent, as any map will show, to form five states of the first magnitude. That much is demon- strated. Now for their capabilities to sustain populous communities, and their adaptation to the construction of a railroad. We begin with the Territory of Kanzas, and find its length above three times its breadth, and naturally divisible into two states by a north and south line, half way to the mountains. The eastern half is beginning to be known from the reports of emigrants and explorers ; but to under- stand its whole interior, the general outline of the whole territory must first be traced, in the mind’s eye or upon a map. Maps are not convenient in so large an assemblage ; so the mind’s eye must be put in requisition, and made to follow the lines as indicated, thus : beginning on the west- ern boundary of Missouri, in the latitude of 37°, and following that parallel west to the eastern boundary of New Mexico ; then a deflection of one degree north to the parallel of 38° ; and on that parallel to the sum- mit of the Rocky Mountains ; then northwardly along that summit to the parallel of 40° ; then east with that parallel to the Missouri line ; and south with that line to the beginning. This is the outline ; now for the interior; and for the sake of distinctness, we will examine that by sec- tions. conformable to the natural divisions of the country. I. We commence with the Kanzas River, on the north side of the terri- tory, and its fourlong forks — the Smoky Hill, the Saline, Solomon’s, and the Republican ; of which the Smoky Hill is the most considerable, and in the best place for the advantage of the territory. All these forks flow in the right direction, — from west to east, — and are beautifully parallel to each other, without mountains or ridges between to interrupt their com- munications, and making, after their junction, near 200 miles of steamboat navigation before their united waters reach the great Missouri River. All the land drained by these streams constitute the valley of Kanzas, if the term valley can be applied to a region which has but little per- ceptible depression below the general level of the country. We will consider the term applicable to all the territory drained by all the Kanzas forks and all their tributaries. One general description applies to the whole — the soil rich like Egypt, and tempting as Egypt would be if raised above the slimy flood, waved into gentle undulations, variegated with groves and meadows, sprinkled with springs, coursed by streams, and warmed by a sun which warms without burning, and blessed with the alternation of seasons which give vigor to the mind and body. Egypt thus raised up and changed might stand for Kanzas; as she is, the only point of comparison is in the soil. For this valley is high and clean, diversified with wood and prairie, watered by springs and streams, grassy and flowery ; its bosom filled with stone for building, coal for fuel, and iron for the home supply of that first of metals, This is the Kanzas of the northern, or Kanzas River side, where Fremont says ■ — and he has a right to know — a continuous cornfield 200 miles in length might be made, so rich and level is the country. But of this part it is 31 * 366 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OR not necessary to say much, as the crowds of emigrants are directing them- selves upon it, and vying with each other in the glowing descriptions which they give of its beauty, salubrity, and fertility. I turn to the south side of the territory, of which little has been said, and much is to be told, and all profitable to be known. In the first place, this south side includes the whole body of the Arkansas River, from near the Missouri line to its headmost spring in the Rocky Mountains — a length of above seven hundred miles on a straight line, and near double that length in the meanders of the stream. This gives to the territory a second large river, and in the right place, and flowing in the right direc- tion, and parallel to the other, as if its twin sister, and so near together as to he seldom more than a degree, and sometimes not half a degree, from each other, and no mountains or high grounds between them. This, of itself, is a great advantage to the territory, for the Arkansas, like all rivers in the prairie country, brings fertile borders, and groves of wood, and rich grass, and makes an attractive line for settlement and travel. In the next place, it gives a succession of tributaries on each side — each giving lines of wood and water — the only things wanted for settlement and cul- tivation. Some of these tributaries are of great length, and drain wide areas — as the Neosho, drawing its expanded head waters from the centre of the territory, two hundred miles long, and becoming navigable before it reaches the Arkansas River. The Verdigris is but little less than the Neosho, and next above it, and of the same characteristics, and both adapted to cultivation and pasturage. On the opposite side, coming in from the south, is the Salt Fork of the Arkansas, the lower part of it within the limits of Kanzas, with its salt plains and rock salt, impregnating the river, and rendering its waters undrinkable in the dry season. I have seen parcels of this rock salt at St. Louis, cut off with hatchets by the Indians, and of the blown salt, swept up by the squaws with turkey-wing fans when the autumnal sun had evaporated the briny waters of the saline marshes — all so useless now in the hands of the Indians, and to become so valuable in the hands of the whites. Ascending the river, there is a continued succession of affluents from each side, all exercising their fertil- izing powers upon bordering lines of wood, soil, and grass, and becoming better to the very base of the mountains. So that the river advantages on the north side of the territory are rivalled by similar advantages on the south side. I have spoken of the two sides of the territory ; now for the centre — and that is soon despatched ; an expanded prairie, level to the view, rich in soil, scant (but not destitute) of water, green with grass, and enlivened in the proper season with myriads of buffaloes, spreads inimitably before the eyes of the traveller. Some springs, many small streams, numerous pools, peculiar to these plains, (reservoirs of the rains,) invaluable for stock, furnish the present supply, to be helped out by wells as soon as settled. The annual, autumnal, devastating fires being stopped, the in- digenous forest growth will immediately come forth, accompanied by the exotics which the thrifty farmer will lose no time to introduce. Coal will furnish fuel ; so that the whole central plain will receive settlers from the beginning, and especially on the line of road actually travelled, and where the railrold may be expected to be. In the mean time the settler has an attraction — superior with many, and profitable as well as pleasant in itself — to draw him into this vast plain. It is the pastoral pursuit ; for THE GREAT WEST. 367 this is the bucolic region of onr America — now the resort of wild ani- mals, and soon to become the home of the domestic. A short, sweet grass, equally nutritious in the green or dried state, (for it dries of itself on the ground,) covers the face of the earth, inviting all ruminating animals to take their food upon it, without measure and without stint ; a great pastoral region, in which the ox will not know his master’s crib, nor the ass the hand that feedeth him, but in which the dumb, unconscious beast, without knowing it, will feel the bounty of the hand which is the Giver of all good. This is the description of the first Kanzas — the one which will go half way to the mountains — equal in territorial extent to the first class states, exceeded in productive capacity by none — and soon to become one of the great states of the Union. I will call it East Kanzas. II. The second state would occupy the remainder of the territory to the base of the Rocky Mountains, and, like the first half, will have the natural division into three parts, and with the same characteristics, but with a reversal of their localities. The Arkansas River side will be far the most valuable, both intrinsically and in its locality; but the Kanzas side will still have its value and attraction. Eremont says of it, “ The soil of all this country (Upper Kanzas and base of the mountains) is excellent, ad- mirably adapted to agricultural purposes, and would support a large agricultural and pastoral population.” He says it is watered by many streams, but without wood, except on their borders; that grass abounds, and among its varieties, the esparcette, a species of clover, so valuable for the pasturage of swine, cultivated for that purpose in Germany, but in- digenous in all this base of the mountains. But the valley of the Upper Arkansas would form the pride and strength of the upper state — West Kanzas, as I will call it, including, as the territory does, a part of the superb valley of San Luis, and the beautiful Sah watch, which forms a continuation of it, and which leads to the famous Coochatope pass. Eremont thus speaks of this upper part of the Arkansas, as seen by him in his various expeditions, and especially in the one of the last winter : — “ The immediate valley of the Upper Arkansas, for about two hundred miles, as you approach the mountains, is continuously well adapted to settlements, as well as to roads. Numerous well-watered and fertile valleys, broad and level, open up among the moun- tains, which present themselves in detached blocks, (outliers,) gradually closing in around the heads of the streams, hut leaving open approaches to the central ridges. The whole of the inter-mountain region is abundant in grasses, wood, coal, and fertile soil. The pueblos above Bent’s Fort prove it to be well adapted to the grains and vege- tables common to the latitude, including Indian corn, which ripens well, and to the sup- port of healthy stock, which increase well, and take care of themselves summer and winter.” Of the climate and winter season in this elevated region he thus speaks : — “ The climate is mild and the winters short, the autumn usually having its full length of bright open weather, without snow, which in winter falls rarely and passes olf quickly. In this belt of country lying along the mountains the snow falls more early and much more thinly than in the open plains to the eastward ; the storms congregate about the high mountains, and leave the valleys free. In the beginning of December we found yet no snow on the Huerfano River, and were informed by an old resident, then engaged in establishing a farm at the mouth of this stream, that snow seldom fell there, and that ''•attle wera '.eft in the range all the winter through.” 868 THE GARDEN OP THE WORLD, OR This was the first of December. Eight days later, and when advanced a hundred miles farther, and standing in the Sandhill Pass of the Sierra Blanca, which looks both into the head valleys of the Del Norte and of the Arkansas, he still writes, — “ On the 8th of December we found this whole country free from snow, and Daguerre views, taken at this time, show the grass entirely uncovered in the passes.” This is the winter view of this country and its climate, and certainly no mountain region could present any thing more desirable for man or beast. A summer view of it is given by Messrs. Beal & Heap, in their central route journey to California, yi 1853, thus : — “Upon reaching the summit of the buttes, a magnificent and extensive panorama opened to our view. The horizon was bounded to the north by Pike’s Peak — to the west and north-west by the Sierra Mohada, (Wet Mountain,) Sangre de Christo Moun- tains, and the Spanish Peaks; to the south and east extended the prairie — lost in the hazy distance. On the gently undulating plains, reaching to the foot of the Rocky Mountains, could be traced, by their lines of timber, the course of the Arkansas River and its various tributaries — among them the Huerfano, (Orphan River,) easily distin- guished from the remote point (nearly due west) where it issued from the Sierra Blanca, to its junction with the Arkansas, except at short intervals where it passed through canyons in the plain. Pike’s Peak was a prominent object in the landscape, its head capped with eternal snow, soaring high above all the neighboring summits. The river (Huerfano) bottom was broad, and thickly wooded with willows and cottonwood, inter- laced with wild rose and grape vines, and carpeted with soft grass — a sylvan paradise. The scenery, as we approached the country between the Spanish Peaks and the Sierra Mohada, was picturesque and beautiful. Mountains towered high above us, the sum- mits of some covered with snow, (July,) while the dense forests of dark pines which clothed their sides contrasted well with the glittering white at the top, and the light green of the soft grass at their base. The humidity of the Sierra Mohada gives great fertility to this region ; and the country bordering on the sides of the mountains, as well as the valleys in their recesses, are unequalled in loveliness and richness of vegeta- tion. To the settler they offer every inducement; and I have no doubt in a few years this tract of country will vie with California or Australia in the number of emigrants it will invite. It is by far the most beautiful part of New Mexico, (now a part of Kan- zas,) and a remarkably level country connects it with the western part of the Atlantic States. As soon as this is thrown open to settlement, a continuous line of farms will he established, by which the agricultural and mineral wealth of the country will be de- veloped.” Mr. Charles M’Clanahan, a Virginia emigrant to California, and a large dealer in stock to that country, writing back to me from the valley of San Luis in August, 1853. says, — “On this route almost the entire way may be settled, as all the land from Missouri to Bent’s Port is rich, and very fertile, equal to the best lands of Missouri and Illinois, and no land can heat the Sierra Blanca for grass. Even to the very summit it stands as thick as the best meadows, and many acres would mow at least four tons to the acre. Then comes the large and beautiful valley of San Luis, said to be one of the most fer- tile in New Mexico. Indeed, fine land is upon the whole route, and the climate is such that the stock can live out all the winter upon the grass. On this route there is an abundance of grass and water, so much so that stock will travel and keep fat. A very large majority of our sheep are as fat mutton as any in the Philadelphia or Baltimore market; and a very large number of Mr. Barnwell’s cattle are fine beef, and I have never seen any stock, after travelling so far, look half so well.” Mr. Lercux, in his published letter to me, describing, among other things, the valley of San Luis, which lies east of the Coochatope Pass, and leads to it through the Sahwatch Valley, and which valley of San Luis is now partly in Iianzas, says, — 44 There is a large valley to the east, about fifty or sixty miles wide, and near one hundred miles long, reaching from the Coochatope to the Taos settlements at the little THE GREAT WEST. 369 Colci'ado. The Del Norte rune through this valley, which is the widest and best valley iu all New Mexico, and can hold more people than all New Mexico besides. It is all praiiie except on the creeks, and on the river, and on the mountain sides, which are well wooded. 1 1 is a rich soil, and covered with good grass, and wooded on all the streams. The Spaniards called it El Valle de San Luis, and it was formerly famous for wild horses and buffaloes ; and ever since Taos was settled by the Spaniards, the in- habitants drove their sheep and cattle thereto winter. Before tire Utah Indians be- came so had, the stock, as many as fifty or sixty thousand head of sheep and cattle, have been driven there to winter, which they did well, feeding on the grass during the day, and sheltering in the woods about the shepherds’ cam}) at night. Most of the winters there is no snow along the foot of the mountain ou the north side of this valley, being sheltered from the north, and open to the sun to the south. The United States have established a military post in this valley, not far from the pass of El Sangre de Christo, and about two hundred families have gone there to live, chiefly near the fort, and raised crops there last year; and now that they have protection, the valley will soon be all settled, and will be the biggest and best part of New Mexico. About three hundred families more were preparing to move there. The post is called Fort Massa- chusetts.” This is the Western or Upper Kanzas, and will make another great state, and both will quickly be ripe for admission into the Union — East Kanzas in 1855, and the western in 1856. They will both be settled with unexampled rapidity. In agriculture and grazing alone they present irre- sistible attractions to the settler. But it is not agricultural and pastoral advantages alone, great as they are, which are to attract people to this region ; other causes are to add their inducements to the same attractions, and render them invincible. At the head of these other causes stands the preemption law, now engrafted as a permanent feature in the federal land system, and made applicable to all the public lands in the territory. By virtue of this law the laboring man, without a dollar in his pocket, is put ahead of the speculator with his thousands. He may choose for himself out of the wide domain, mark out his choice, take possession, work it, and raise enough out of it or on it to pay the government price by the time the pay is demandable, with the good prospect to see it rise to ten or twenty times as much as it cost within a few years. This is a chance for a freehold, and of provision for a family, which the wise and industrious tiller of the earth will not neglect. Then come the political advantages. The act of Congress creatin^the territory gives great political rights to unnaturalized settlers coming into it. It gives the elective franchise, and eligibility to office, upon the simple declaration of atyntention to become a citizen of the United States, and taking the requisite oaths. This is an advantage which the foreign emigrant will know how to appreciate and to appropriate. Then comes an advantage of a different kind still, novel but energetic, and already in full operation' — the competition for excess of settlers between the free and the slave states. That competition, though deplorable in its political and social aspect, must have one good effect upon the territory — that of rapidly filling it with people, the only point of view in which I refer to it. Finally comes a fourth cause in this extra list for attracting settlers — one that must have its effect upon all who can reason from cause to effect, who can look ahead and see what is to happen by seeing what exists, who can estimate the force of natural causes, which are self-acting and irresistible, and which work out their results without the directing and helping hand of government. It is the Pacific Railroad ! Kanzas has the charter from nature for that road, and will use i;. She has the smooth way on which to place it, the straight way on which to run it, the material with which to build it, the soil and a 870 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OR peopl ) lo support it, and the salubrious climate to give it exemption from disease: and she has in her south-west quarter, precisely where the straight line requires them to be, the multiplied gates which open the mountains to the Pacific, the Coochatope, the Carnero, the San Juan, the Poonche, the Medio, the Mosca, the Sangre de Christo, the Utah. These passes, and the rich, grand, and- beautiful country in which they lie, command a road, and will have it; and the preemptioner who acquires a quarter section on its line may consider'his fortune made. Now I think I have provided for two of the five states which I have promised, and that within the brief space of one and two years, and each upon a larger population than has ever yet been required from other new states. Now let us proceed to the other three, and let us despatch them in less time than these two have required. III. We take a section of the Rocky Mountains, from 37° to 41° — near three hundred miles north and south — and go down to the base on each side, say a hundred miles or more each way, making an area of sixty thousand square miles, while all the Swiss cantons have not twenty thousand. Here, then, is territory enough for a great mountain state. Now let us look to its contents and capabilities. First, there are the Three Parks first described by Fremont, and since laid down on all the maps — large, beautiful, mountain coves, two of them of thirty miles’ diameter each, the other of sixty — at a great elevation, delightful in summer, and tempered in winter, from the concentration of the sun’s rays, and sheltered by the lofty rim of mountains, forever crowned with snow, which wall them in and break otf the outside storms. The name is not fanciful, nor bestowed capriciously by travellers, but a real description, translated from the Indian name of these parks, which signifies “ cow lodge,” and not without reason, for the buffaloes not only feed but lodge there, and make them the places of their immense congregation, attended by all the minor animals — elk, deer, antelopes, bears. Then the innumerable little val- leys in which rise the myriad of young streams which, collecting into creeks, go off to start upon their long courses in the mighty rivers which, there rising together, go off in opposite directions, some to the rising, some to the setting sun ; the South Plattc^fthe Arkansas, the Del Norte on one side ; and the Great Colorado of the West on the other — all four born so near togetljpr to run so far apart, a point of similitude to Switzer- land which the instructed mind will not fail to perceive, and also to dis- cover another similitude in Pike’s Peak, grand in its elevation, forever luminous in its mantle of snow — the Mont Blanc of the Rocky Moun- tains, which no adventurous Packard or De Saussurehas ever yet climbed. Then an endless labyrinth of little valleys and coves, where wild animals luxuriate in summer and shelter in winter, and where the Indians pursue their game in all seasons without impediment from cold or snow, and where their horses do well on the grass, retaining much of its moisture and nutriment. Fremont thus describes the general winter condition of these valleys : — “ Our progress in this mountainous region was necessarily slow; and during ten days which it occupied us to pass through about one hundred miles of the mountainous country bordering the eastern side of the Upper Colorado valley, the greatest depth of the snow was (a nong the pines and aspens on the ridges) about two and a half feet, and in the Valleys about six inches. The atmosphere is too cold and dry for much snow; and the valleys, protected by the mountains, are comparatively free from it. and warm. We hero found villages of Utah Indians in their wintering ground, in little valley j THE BKEAT WEST. 371 along the foot of the higher mountains, and bordering the mor- open country c the Colorado valley. Snow was here (December 25) only a few inches deep — the grass generally appearing above it. and there being none under trees and on southern hill 6ides. The horses of the Utahs were living on the range, and, notwithstanding that they were used in hunting, were in excellent condition. One which we had occasion to kill for food had on it about two inches of fat, being in as good order as any buffalo we had killed in November on the eastern plains. Over this valley country — about one hundred and fifty miles across — the Indians informed us that snow tails only a few inches in depth, such as we saw it at the time.” This is the winter condition of these little valleys, very comfortaole for man and beast, even in their wild state, and to become more comfortable under the hand of cultivation. The summer view, as presented by Messrs Beale and Heap, is absolutely enchanting — a perfect labyrinth of val- leys, with their cool water and sweet grass; some wide, some narrow, some hounded by perpendicular walls of rock, like streets in a city ; others by softly-rounded hills ; some studded with small circular moun- tains, called by the hunters “round mountains,” — fertile on the sides, level and rich on the top, diversified with wood and prairie, and re- freshed with clear streams, and beautified with deep, limpid, miniature lakes. These descriptions are charming, hut too numerous for quotation, and I can only give a specimen of each : — “The trail led over low hills and down a succession of beautiful slopes, running mostly in a southern direction, until we entered a narrow, winding valley, two miles and a half in length, by one and two hundred yards in breadth. It was shut in on each side by perpendicular walls of rock, rising from fifty to seventy-five feet above the level of the valley, whose surface was flat and carpeted with tender grass. A stream of clear water meandered through its centre, and the grade was so slight, that the stream, overflowing in many places, moistened the whole surface. As we descended this beautiful and singular valley we occasionally passed others of a similar character. It ends in Sah- watch valley, which we entered about one hour before sunset.” “ The valleys down which we travelled, and which opened into each other with the regularity of streets, grew gradually broader as we descended. We finally entered one watered by Carnero (ifheep) Creek, which joins the Garita (Gate) Creek in San Luis valley, and at noon encamped a short distance above a gate or gap through which the stream passes, (and whence it de- rives its name.) Half a mile below this gap there is another, and a quarter of a mile farther a third. The passage through them is level, while the trail around them is steep and stony. In the afternoon we went through the first gap, made a circuir, around the second, as it was much obstructed with trees and bushes, and, leaving the third on our left, rode over some low hills, and five miles from camp crossed the Garita. We were once more in San Luis valley, and all before us was a perfect level as far as the Bight could reach.” “ Our way, for a mile or two, led over a barren plain, thickly covered with grice wood, but we soon struck the base of the mountain, where firm, rich mountain grass swept our saddle girths as we cantered over it. We crossed a consider- able mountain covered with timber and grass, and near the summit of which was quite a cluster of small, but very clear and apparently deep lakes. They were not more than an acre or two in size, and some not even that, but surrounded by luxuriant grass, and perched away upon the mountain, with fine timber quite near them. It was the most beautiful scenery in the world. It formed quite a hunter’s piradise, for deer and elk hounded off from us as we approached, and then stood within rifle shot, looking back m astonishment. A few hours’ ride brought us to the Indian camp; and I wish I here could describe the beauty of the charming valley in which they camped. It was small, probably not more than five miles wide by fifteen long, but surrounded on all sides by the boldest mountains, covered to their summits with alternate patches of timber and grass, giving it the appearance of having been regularly laid off in small farms. Through the centre a fine bold stream, three feet deep by forty wide, watered the meadow land, and gave the last touch which the valley required to make it the most beautiful I had ever seen.” “ Hundreds of horses and goats were feeding on the meadows and hill side; and the Indian lodges, with the women and children standing in from ">f them to look at the approaching stranger, strongly reminded me of old patriarchal times, when flock 8 and herds made the wealth and happiness of the people, and a hut was as good as a palace. 1 was conducted to the lodge of the chief — an old and infirm man, who 372 THE GARDEN OP THE WORLD, OR welcomed me kindly, and told me Ills young men told him that I had given of my small store to them, and to ‘ sit in peace.’ In about fifteen minutes a squaw brought in two large wooden platters, containing some very fat deer meat, and some boiled corn, to which 1 did ample justice ; and when about to leave, found a large bag of dried meat and a peck of corn put up for me to take to my people.” “ This morning I explored the mountain lying to the south of our camp, forming a picturesque portion of our front view. After ascending the mountain and reaching the summit, I found it a vast plateau of rolling prairie land, covered with the most beautiful grass, and heavily timbered. At some places the growth of timber would be so dense as to render riding through it impos- sible without great difficulty ; while at others it would break into beautiful open glades, leaving spots of a hundred acres or more of open prairie, with groups of trees, looking pre- cisely as if some wealthy planter had amused himself by planting them expressly to beautify his grounds. Springs were abundant, and small streams intersected the whole plateau. In fact, it was an immense natural park, already stocked with deer and elk, and only requiring a fence to make it an estate for a king. Directly opposite to the south is another mountain, in every respect similar; and a valley, more beautiful to me than either, lies between them.” Enough for a sample ; and if anything more is wanted to establish the character of this mountain region for fertility of soil and attraction for man, it is found in its character of hunting .and of war ground. Fre- mont says he found it the most variously and numerously stocked with game, and the most dangerous war ground, which he had seen in all the extent of the Rocky Mountains — both indexes to a fertile country The country sought for by animals and fought for by men is always a good country. Western men will understand this, and remember how Kentucky was called the “ Bloody Ground,” because Indians came there to hunt the numerous game, feeding on the rich grass, product of her rich soil, and to fight for its possession. By this test — and it is one which never fails — our Mountain State will be one of eminent fertility. We Americans are in the habit of referring to Europe for a point of comparison for every thing we wish to praise in our own country, although our own may be far superior ; therefore I compare this Mountain State to Switzerland, although it is disparaged in the comparison. Its valleys are more numerous and beautiful — its mountains less rugged and more fertile — its surface more inhabitable — its climate more mild and equally salubrious — more accessible by roads ; the mule every where sure of its feet, the carriage of its wheel, and the hunter at liberty to pursue his game without fear of slipping into a bottomless icy chasm, betrayed by a treacherous covering of snow. Its little round mountains, with their grassy sides, and rich level tops, and natural parks, and miniature lakes, and sweet flowing waters, have no parallel in Switzerland, or in any other part of the world. And upon this view of their relative advantages I am ready to adopt the opinion of Ei'emont, and to go beyond it, and to cele- brate this Mountain State as being-.as much superior to Switzerland in adaptation to settlement as it would be in extent ; and to crown its recommendations, just half way to the Pacific, and on the straight line. IV. The valley of the Upper Colorado would furnish the territory for the fourth state, one hundred and fifty miles wide from the western base of the Rocky Mountains to the eastern base of the Wahsatch and Anter via ranges, and three or four hundred in length, up and down the river. The face of the country is high and rolling, with alternations of wood- land prairie, and open to roads and settlement in any direction. The soil, like much of that on the Rio del Norte and in Southern California, is peculiar and deceptious — looking thin and sandy to the eye, but having an element of fertility in it which water impregnates, and enables THE GREAT WEST. 373 *> send forth a vigorous vegetation. All it wants, and that only in places, is irrigation ; and for this purpose, and for all purposes, there is water enough ; for this valley is probably the best watered region in th6 world, and is obliged to be so from the configuration and structure of the country. The valley is formed by the lofty ranges of the Rocky and Wahsatch Mountains, which, wide apart at its lower end, converge as they go north, and unite above latitude forty-two — giving to the long and broad valley they enclose the form of the Greek letter delta, (a.) or of our Y inverted. The summits of these mountains are covered with eter- nal snows — their sides with annual winter snows ; and these latter, beginning to melt early in the spring, and continuing till midsummer, fill the earth with moisture, and give rise to myriads of springs, creeks, and small rivers, which collect into the two forks of the Colorado, called by the hunters Green and Grand Rivers, and, in their junction, constitute the great river itself ; for the country below, being sterile and arid, con- tributes but little to swell the volume of the great river which traverses it. The climate in this valley is mild — the month of January being like autumn to us. We owe this knowledge to the last winter expedition of Fremont, who says, “ The immediate valley of the Upper Colorado, for about one hundred miles in breadth, and from the 7th to the 21st of January, was entirely bare of snow, and the weather resembled autumn with us.” Coal abounds in this valley, cropping out in thick strata in the bluffs of Grand River, (the east fork of the Great Colorado,) and a saline creek thirty miles long, and formed by salt springs, foils into the same fork from the north ; and both the coal and the salt are in the line of the contemplated road to the Pacific. This would be the fourth state — equal in extent to any, inferior in soil, superior in wood and water, softer in climate, better in due alternations of woodland and prairie: and being part of the Utah Territory, it is now under the dominion of law and government, and open to immediate settlement, which, in fact, is now going on. V. The fifth state would consist of the remainder of the Utah Terri- tory, beginning at the eastern base of the Wahsatch and Anterria ranges, and extending 300 miles to the California line, upon whatever breadth might be desired. It would include, towards its eastern border, the Little Salt Lake, which ir 260 miles south of the Great Salt Lake, and which designates a countiy as much superior to that of the Great Salt Lake as itself is inferior to that large and marvellous body of salt water. It would be a magnificent state ; its eastern limit, there the rim of the Great Basin, would embrace the broad expanse of the Wahsatch and Anterria ranges, or rather blocks, as they are cut up into short sections — proba- bly the richest mountain region in the world, where Nature has crowded and accumulated into a hundred miles square, as into a vast magazine, a profusion of her most valuable gifts to man. Soil, water, grass, wood, timber, rock salt, coal, stone, a due alternation of mountain and valley — the former cut into blocks, white on the top with snow, dark on the sides with forests, and their bosoms filled with ores ; the valleys green with grass, fresh with cool water, opening into each other by narrow level gaps, or defiles ; the climate so soft that animals live out all the winter, and February (so frosty and frozen with us) the usual month there for starting the plough : I say starting the plough ; for the Mor- mons, since several years, have seen the beauty of this region, and have 32 374 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OR come upon it. We owe to Fremont’s last winter expedition the revela tion to public view of this magnificent region, more valuable than all the golden mines of California and Australia put together. He had seen these ranges in his previous expeditions, and given them a page in his journal, and a place in his map ; but it was not until his last expedition that he penetrated their recesses, and saw their hidden treasures. He was fourteen days in them, (from the 24th of January to the 7th of Feb- ruary,) and thus speaks of what he saw : — “ They lie between the Colorado valley and the Great Basin ; and at their western base are established the Mormon settlements of Parowan and Cedar City. They aro what are called fertile mountains, abundant in water, wood, and grass, and fertile val- leys, offering inducements to settlement and facilities for making a road. These moun- tains are a great storehouse of materials — timber, iron, coal — which would be of in- dispensable use in the construction and maintenance of the road, and are solid founda- tions to build up the future prosperity of the rapidly increasing Utah state. Salt is abundant on the eastern border; mountains — as the Sierra de Sal — being named from it. In the ranges lying behind the Mormon settlements, among the mountains through which the line passes, are accumulated a great wealth of iron and coal, and extensive forests of heavy timber. These forests are the largest I am acquainted with in the Itocky Mountains, being, in some places, 20 miles in depth of continuous for- est; the general growth lofty and large, frequently over three feet in diameter, and sometimes reaching five feet, the red spruce and yellow pine predominating. At the actual southern extremity of the Mormon settlements, consisting of the two enclosed towns of Parowan and Cedar City, near to which our line passed, a coal mine has been opened for about 80 yards, and iron works already established. Iron here occurs in extraordinary masses, in some parts accumulated into mountains, which comb out in crests of solid iron, 30 feet thick and 100 yards long.” Fremont brought home specimens of this coal and iron, of which Pro- fessor Baird, of the Smithsonian Institution, has made the analysis ; and •which I give in his own words : “ Magnetic oxide of iron : Parowan. Seems a very pure ore of iron, and suitable for manufacturing purposes. May be estimated to contain about 70 or 71 per centum of metallic iron, somewhat similar to the ore in the great beds of Northern New York, hut more solid than is usual there. Probably very well adapted to the manufacture of steel. The coal appears to be of excellent quality — semi-bituminous — somewhat in appearance like the transition coal of the Susquehanna mines in Pennsylvania.” I must ask the pardon of some of my auditors for supposing that they may not be better acquainted with the language of geology than I was myself, when I supposed that this “ combing out of the solid iron in crests ” was mere descriptive language, suggested by the taste of the writer. I found it was not so, but the technical phraseology, which the geological science required to be used, and which, being used, conveyed an exact meaning — that of a mineral showing itself above the surface, and crowning the top of the hill or mountain as a crest does the helmet, and the comb the head of the cock. In this view of its meaning the language here used by Fremont, and which seems to have been the sug- gestion of an excited imagination, becomes the subdued expression of science and technicality. And what a picture he presents ! What pro- fusion and variety of God’s best gifts to man ! Here are, in fact, the elements of a great state — enough of themselves to build up a rich and populous state ; but appurtenant to it, and interlaced with it, or border- ing upon it, is a great extent of valley country — that of the Little Salt Lake, of the Santa Clara Meadows, of the Nicollets River, and its tribu- taries ; and a multitude of other coves and valleys, all stretching along THE GREAT WEST. 375 the western base of the Wahsatch, and within the rim of the Great Ba- sin ; that basin as remarkable here for beauty and fertility as in most other parts for sterility and deformity. The Mormon settlements of Par- agoona, Parowan, and Cedar City are along the edge of this rich moun- tain region ; and the well-trod Mormon road from the Great Salt Lake to Southern California, relieved with bridges and marked with mile- stones, pass by these towns; all announcing to the traveller that in the depths of the unknown wilderness he had encountered the comforts of civilization. Messrs. Beale and Heap passed these settlements at mid- sc.romer, and speak in terms of enchantment, not only of the beauty of tke country, but of the improvements and cultivation. Pretty towns, built to a pattern, each a square, the sides formed by lines of adobe houses, all facing inwards, with flower and kitchen gardens in front, and a large common field in the rear, crowded with growing grain — and all watered, both fields and gardens, and the front and rear of every house, with clear cool streams, brought down from the mountain sides, and from under a seeming canopy of snow. Grist and saw mills at work ; forges smelting the iron ore ; colliers digging the coal ; blacksmiths hammering the red hot iron into farming implements, or shoes for the horses — assisted by dexterous Indian boys ; cattle roaming in rich nat- ural pastures; people quarrying, and the cattle licking, the rock salt. Emigrants obtain supplies here — beef and flour, at moderate prices : and it was here that Fremont was refitted after his 70 days of living upon his mules which died from exhaustion. The number and beauty of these valleys and fertile mountains, seen by Beale and Heap in exuber- ance, their ripe, rich dress of midsummer, excite their wonder, and call forth enchanting descriptions. Broad valleys, connected by narrow ones — a continued succession of these valleys going from one to another, not by climbing ridges, but through level openings • — grass, flowers, and water in each. The mountains, some circular, some cut into blocks, some with fertile flat tops, rich in vegetation, some with peaks white with snow, and all dark with forests on their sides. It is impossible to read their descriptions without being reminded of Central I ersia, and of that valley of Shiraz, celebrated as incomparable by the poets, but matched and surpassed in the recesses of the Wahsatch and the Anterria; and the climate delicious in summer, and soft in winter. From the 24th of January to the 8th of February, that Fremont explored this region, he found in the valleys either no snow at all, or a thin covering only ; and : in the first week of February, the Mormons told him they had usually commenced ploughing, and preparing the ground for the spring seeds And yet all this would be but a corner of a state, which may spread west and north some hundred miles to the California line, and into the Great Basin — chiefly characterized as desert, but which has its oases — vegas, as the Spaniards call them — meadows refreshed with water, green with grass, and arable land, and with a structure of country, narrow valleys between snowy mountains, which give assurance of the artesian wells which can extend the area of fertility, and multiply the points of settle- ment. So that this fifth state may be as extensive, as populous, and as rich as anj' public interest could require. Abundant instances are given by Fremont, and by Beale and Heap, to justify this enchanting descrip- tion of these valleys and vegas : too many to cite. One only will be quoted as a specimen. I take it from Fremont’s description of one of 376 THE GARDEN OP THE WORLD, OR the vegos of Santa Clara ; for there are several of them, and they ara always cited in the plural — vegas , not vega. He says, — “Wo considered ourselves as crossing the rim of the Great Basin; and, entering it at this point, we found here an extensive mountain meadow, rich in ‘hunch grass,’ and fresh with numerous springs of clear water, all refreshing and delightful to look upon. It was, in fact, that las vegas de Santa Clara , which had been so long presented to us as the terminating point of the desert, and where the annual caravan, from California to New Mexico, halted and recruited for some weeks. The meadow was about one mile wide and ten long, bordered by grassy hills and fountains — some of the latter rising 2000 feet, and white with snow (May) down to the level of the vega. Its elevation above the sea was 5280 feet, and its latitude, by observation, 37° 28' 28". Here we had complete relief from the heat and privations of the desert, (on the old route to Los Angeles.)” The “ bunch grass” here spoken of, takes its name from the form in which it grows, which is in bunches — different from the short gr*.S3 called “ buffalo” on the east side of the Rocky Mountains — but about equally valuable, being nutritious both in summer and winter, and hav- ing a second growth in the fall. It prevails extensively on the Pacific slope of our continent, and is an element of national wealth in its sup- port of stock. The climate of this region, besides what has been said, may be judged of by the material used for building, even where wood and stone are abundant — adobes , or sun-baked bricks. That indicates a climate comparatively dry and mild — more Asiatic than American — reminding us of Nineveh and Babylon. Certainly no houses, built of such material, (with or without straw,) on our side of the continent, could stand the driving of our merciless rains, or resist the action of our freezing winters. Beale and Heap went through these ranges not only at a different sea- son of the year from Fremont, but on a different line ; and their descrip- tion of the pass at the divorce point of the waters between the valley of the Upper Colorado and the Great Basin, and of the valleys of the An- terria and Wahsatch, and of the Mormon settlements, will complete this view of the capabilities of the fifth state. This, then, is what they say : — “ On the summit of the 1 divide’ ( divortia aguarum ) between the waters of the Colo- rado and the Great Basin, and before descending into the valley of the Rio Salado, an affluent of Sevier (Nicollet) River. I took a careful survey of the surrounding country, which offered many interesting features. The Wahsatch Mountains are composed of several parallel ranges, running north and south, with fine well-watered valleys be- tween them. They are short, and between the valleys are numerous passes. The hills are clothed, from their summits to their base, with a thick growth of pine trees, cedars, and aspens, and the brook was swarming with trout. The ‘ divide’ is broad, level, and smooth, and the descent, on the western side, easy. We encamped, for the night, on the Salado, in a broad and level valle 3 r . Throughout the mountains the grass reminded us of that of the Sahwatch range, although in the valley it was less luxuriant. We were now in the Great Basin, and near the Mormon settlements ; and, directing our course west, we came again to the Salado, at the place where it flows past the mines of rock salt, from which it derives its name. The course of the creek is here south-west, and it joins Nicollet River, about three miles below the mines. At the mines we found a Mormon trail, which, our guide told us, led to their settlements, about 20 miles dis- tant. Following up Sevier (Nicollet) River, four miles brought us to beautiful meadows, grass luxuriant, reaching above the saddle girths. Crossing Nicollet River, we passed over a steep hill ; we descended into another valley, watered by the same stream, hav- ing missed the Mormon road which led into it. This valley lies north and south, and unsurpassed in beauty and fertility by any thing we had yet seen. It is about thirty miles in length by four in breadth ; surrounded by mountains, down whose sides tric- kled numberless cool and limpid brooks, fringed with willows and cottonwood. Nicollet River flows through its centre, and it abounds, in its entire length, in rich pasturage. The mountains which enclose it were clothed, from summit to base, with oaks and pines. At the head < 1 the valley, and through a canon (canyon) comes in the Rio San THE GREAT WEST. 377 Pasqual — the main fork of the Nicollet, and which itself flows through a v Alley of great beauty. “ Arrived at Little Salt Lake. (260 miles south of the Great Salt Lake,) in the valley of which is the first Mormon town — Paragoona — of about 30 houses, built of adobes , (sun-burnt bricks,) presenting a neat and comfortable appearance, but broken up. in the moment of our arrival, by the Utah war, and the inhabitants removed to Parowan. Proceeded to this town over an excellent wagon road, made, and kept in repair, and bridged in many places by the Mormons. We passed a large grist and saw mill worked by water power. Parowan is in a pretty valley of its own name, and is a town of about 100 houses, ( adobes ,) built in a square and facing inwards. In their rear, and outside of the town, are vegetable gardens, each house having a lot running back about 100 yards. By an excellent system of irrigation, water is brought to the front and rear of each house, and through the centre, and along the outside boundary of each garden lot. The houses are ornamented in front with small flower gardens, which are fenced off from the square, and shaded with trees. The field covers about 400 acres, and was in a high state of cultivation ; the wheat and corn being as fine as any we had seen in the States. Several smelting furnaces are at work upon the iron ore in the mountains, coal for the fuel, and all asserted to be abundant and excellent. We had our horses shod here, two Pahutah boys assisting the white, blacksmith; and we were surprised to see the skill and dexterity with which they assisted — fully equal to that of our white boys of the same age. Furnaces for smelting iron ore were already in operation in the vicinity of Paragoona and Parowan, and that metal, which was obtained in sufficient quantity to supply any demand, was also of excellent quality, and the veins of coal apparently inexhaustible. A large force of English miners was employed in working these mines, and prouounced the coal to be equal to the best English coal. We saw it in use in the forges — bituminous, and burning with a bright flame. A Pahutah hand- ed me some ears of wheat, the grains of which I preserved, and he stated that it grows spontaneously near the Santa Clara. It is from this stock that the New Mexicans have obtained the seed which they call Pahute wheat, and the Mormons Taos wheat, and which has been much improved by cultivation, and is considered the best in New Mex- ico and Utah.” Mr. Chairman, I commenced this speech with undertaking to estab- lish two propositions ; first , that the country between Missouri and Cal- ifornia, in the latitude in which we now stand, is well adapted to settle ment and cultivation, and capable of forming five great states ; secondly , that it is well adapted to the construction of a railway. I believe I have made good the first of these propositions, and that we may now assume that the line of great states which now extend nearly half way across this continent, and through the centre of this Union — Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri — may be continued, and matched, by an equal number of states, equally great, between Missouri and Cali- fornia. I consider that proposition established, and say no more about it. The establishment of the second proposition results from the estab- lishment of the first one, as all that has been shown in favor of the coun try for settlement and cultivation is equally in favor of it for the road But I have some direct and positive testimony on this head which the importance of the subject, and the value of the testimony itself, requires to be produced. I speak of the last expedition of Colonel Fremont — • his winter expedition of 1853 and 1854 — and of the success which at- tended it, and of the value of the information which it afforded. He chose the dead of winter for his exploration, that he might see the worst — see the real difficulties, and determine whether they could be van- quished. He believed in the practicability of the road, and that his mis- carriage in 1848-9, was the fault of his guide, not of the country; and he was determined to solve those questions by the test of actual experi- ment. With these views he set out, taking the winter for his time, the west for his course, a straight line his object, the mouth of the Kanzas for his 378 THE GARDEN OP THE WORLD, OR point of departure, St. Louis and San Francisco the points to be con nected. The parallels of 38 and 39 covered his course ; and between these he continued to move west until he reached the Little Salt Lake, within 300 miles of the California line ; after that upon a slight deflec- tion to the south, between the parallels 37 and 38, until he entered Cali- fornia. This may be called a straight line, and so fulfils a primary con- dition of every kind of road, and especially of a railroad, where a speed of a hundred miles an hour may be as easily attained, and as safely run, as the third of that velocity in a road of crooks and curves. Snow was the next consideration ; and of that he found none, on any part of the route, to impede any kind of travelling. On the Kanzas, the Upter Arkansas, and the Huerfano, he found none at all; in the Sand Hill pass of the Sierra Blanca, none ; in the valleys of San Luis, and the Sahwatch, none ; in the Coochatope pass, four inches ; and none if he had crossed the day before ; and that was the 14th of December, corre- sponding with the time, and almost in view of the place where he had been buried in the snows five years before — and would have been again if he had gone to the same place. This solved the question of snow in the passes of the mountains, and showed that his miscarriage had been the mistake of the guide, and not the fault of the country. After that — after crossing the Rocky Mountains — the climate changes. A great amelioration takes place, which he knew before, and then fully experi- enced. The remainder of the route, as has been shown in the view of the country, may be said to have been found free from snow — a hun- dred miles at a time in one place without finding any ; and when found at all, both thin and transient ; and all so light and dry as to clog noth- ing, nor damp the moccason in a day’s travel. And that this was the common winter state of the pass, and not an occasional exception, has been shown by Mr. Antoine Leroux, and others, and corresponded with his own theory of snow in the passes. Mr. Leroux, in his published let ter to me, said, “ There is not much snow in this pass, (the Coochatope,) and people go through it all the winter. And when there is much snow on the mountains on the Abiquiu route, ( which is the old Spanish trail from Santa Fe to California,) the people of Taos go round this way, and get into that trail in the forks of Grand and Green Rivers.” And Messrs. Beale and Heap, in their journal, say of it, “Coochatope pass is travelled at all seasons, and some of our men had repeatedly gone through it in the middle of winter, without meeting any serious obstruc- tion from snows.” And this was the theory of Fremont, that the passes in these mountains were nearly free from snow, and comparatively warm ; while in the open plains, or on the mountain summits, deep snows would prevail, and a killing cold, which no animal life could stand. This frees the Rocky Mountains from that objection. The next range of moun- * tains (for all the valleys have been shown to be free) is the Anterria and Wahsatch; and there again the passes are free. Fremont says of them, — “ In passing through this bed of mountains about fourteen days had been occupied, from January 24 to February 7 ; the deepest snows we here encountered being about up to the saddle skirts, or four feet ; this occurring only ill occasional drifts in the passes on northern exposures, and in the small mountain flats hemmed in by woods and hills. In the valley it was sometimes a few inches deep, and as often none at all. On our arrival at the Mormon settlements, February 8, we found it a few inches deep, and were there informed that the winter had been unusually long-continued and severe, the thermometer having been as low as 17° below zero, and more suow having THE GREAT WEST. 379 fallen than in all the previous winters together since the establishment of the colony. At this season their farmers had usually been occupied with their ploughs, preparing the land for seed.” The Sierra Nevada was the last range of mountains; and there not a particle of snow was found in the pass which he traversed, while the mountain itself was deeply covered. And this disposes of the objection of snow on this route, so formidable in the imagination of those who have nothing but an imaginary view of it. Smoothness of surface, or freedom from abrupt inequalities in the ground, is the next consideration : and here the reality exceeded the ex- pectation, and challenges incredulity. Let Fremont speak. He says, — “Standing immediately at the mouth of the Sand Hill pass — one of the most prac- ticable in the Sierra Blanca, and above those usually travelled — at one of the remotest head springs of the Huerfano River, the eye of the traveller follows down, without ob- struction or abrupt descent, along the gradual slope of the valley to the great plains which reach the Missouri. The straight river and the open valley form, with the plains beyond, one great slope, without a hill to break the line of sight, or obstruct the course of the road. On either side of this line hills slope easily to the river, with lines of timber and yellow autumnal grass ; and the water which flows smoothly between is not interrupted by a fall in its course to the ocean.” Here is a section of the route above seven hundred miles long — being more than half the distance to California — in which there is no eleva- tion to arrest the vision — in which you might look down the wide dis- tance, if the eyesight was long enough, and see the frontier of Missouri from the mouth of the first pass in the first mountain, being more than half the length of the road. This would do for a start. It would satisfy the call for a fair surface at the commencement. This first pass is called the Sand Hill, or Roubidoux, through which Fremont entered the valley of San Luis ; and the way so low and level as to be seen through. And through that valley and its continuation (the Sahwateh) to the Coocha- tope the ground is so smooth as to present no exception to its level but the natural curvature of the earth. Meeting a man on horseback in this long level of more than a hundred and twenty miles, (counting the entire valleys of San Luis and the Sahwateh,) is like meeting a ship at sea ; you see his head first, then his body, then his horse, and at last the ground. The pass itself, as well as the approaches to it, is perfect. Fremont calls it “ an open easy wagon way.” Beale and Heap say it was a ques- tion whether they had passed the dividing point between the eastern and western waters, which could only be answered by referring to the water itself. The pass itself, of which they made a drawing, was grand and beautiful. They say of it, “ Lofty mountains, their summits covered with eternal snows, lifted their heads to the clouds ; while in our imme- diate vicinity were softly-rounded hills, clothed with grass and flowers, with rich meadows between ; through which numerous rills trickled to join their waters to the Coochatope Creek.” But why multiply words to induce conviction ■when facts are at hand to command it 1 Facts enough abound to show the facility of this pass, even in a state of nature. More than 40 loaded wagons went through it in the summer of 1853, 20 of them guided by Leroux for Captain Gunnison, the rest by emigrant fam ilies without guiles. But more than that, the buffaloes have travelled it always — those best of engineers, whose instinct never commits a mis- take, and which in their migrations for pasture, shelter, and salt, never fail to find the lowest levels in the mountains, the shallowest fords in the rivers, the richest grass, the best salt licks, the most permanent water, and 380 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OR always take the shortest and best routes between all these points of at- traction. ThSse instinctive explorers traverse this pass, and gave it their name — Coochalope in the Utah language; Puerto del Ctbolos in the Spanish ; which, being rendered into English, signifies the Gate of the Buffaloes. And their bones and horns, strewing the ground, attest their former numerous presence in this locality, before the firearms of modern invention had come to their destruction at such a crowded point of rendezvous. This is enough to show that the Rocky Mountains may be passed without crossing a hill — that loaded wagons may cross it at all seasons of the year. This applies to the Coochatope pass, but there are many others, and all good ; and it is curious to detect the Latin lan- guage in many of their names, put upon them in the Spanish translation of the original Indian. Thus we see porta in puerto (a gate) constant- ly recurring, as Puerto del Cibolos, Puerto del Mosca; in which latter, besides the porta, we detect the Latin musca, (fly ;) Anglice, the Fly Gate, from the unusual number of these insects which the Indians found in it ; Puerto del Medio, (medium,) Middle Gate, &c., &c. ; and here I recapitu- late in order to make an important point clear. 1. From the Missouri frontier to the first pass, in the first mountain, upwards of 700 miles, the way is so smooth and straight that there is no obstruction to the vision. 2. Through that first pass, (the Sand Hi-11,) eight miles, it is about equally level, but the line of sight broken by the deflection through the moun- tain. 3. Through the San Luis and Sahwatch valleys to the Coo- chatope pass, above 100 miles, it is equally level and straight ; so that from Missouri to the Coochatope, (above 800 miles,) there is no visible inequality of surface, nor any thing to break the line of sight, but the deflection of eight miles through the Sand Hill pass of the Sierra Blanca. It was the Baron Alexander Von Humboldt that first put it into a book that the buffaloes were the best of civil engineers. He put it into his Aspects of Nature ; and I afterwards put the same into a senatorial speech, without knowing what he had done ; and, true to the facts, we both gave the same examples of leading roads in our America, first traced by the buffaloes, and afterwards followed by the Indian as his war path, by the pioneer white man as his wagon road, and by the engi- neer as his Me Adam or railroad track. Among these examples we both mentioned the buffalo trail from the Holston Salt Springs, in Virginia, to the rich pastures of Kentucky, through the Cumberland Mountain Gap, and said that no other practicable route between these two points had yet been found. In fact, all the country people knew that the buffa- loes were right ; but in this past summer of 1854 some railroad engineers undertook to find a better and shorter road between the Salt Springs and the Cumberland Gap. They tried it, got cornered, could get no farther, had to perform that evolution which, in the vernacular of the west, is called backing out,” had to return to the salt works, take the old trail, and follow the buffaloes. This was a confirmation of Hum- boldt, and a triumph of instinct over science ; and we shall claim the benefit of it if any book-taught engineer shall ever have the temerity to dispute the excellence and supremacy of the Coochatope pass. In a word, there is no difficulty about passes ; the only bother is to choose oat of so many, all so good, both in themselves and in their ap- proaches. This is enough for the passes : with respect to the whole mourta’n regior, and the facility of going through it, and upon different THE GREAT WEST. 381 lines, we have also the evidence of facts, which dispense with specula- tion and assertion. That region was three times traversed, and on dif- ferent routes, by Messrs. Beale and Heap in the summer of 1853. It happened thus : when they had reached the east fork of the Great Colo- rado of the West, and were crossing it, they lost, by the accident of an overturned canoe, their supply of munitions, both for the gun and the mouth, and were forced to send back to the nearest settlement for a further supply. That nearest settlement was Taos, in New Mexico, distant 330 miles, and that distanca»to be made upon mules, finding their own food, which had already travelled, on the same condition, 1000 miles from ths frontier of Missouri, and these mules (thus already travelled long and hard, without other food than the grass afforded) now made the double distance at the rate of 40 miles a day, still finding their own food, and, on the return, bringing packs on their backs. This performance must stand for a proof that the whole mountain region between the Upper Colo- rado and the valley of the Upper Del Norte is well adapted to travel- ling, and that in a state of nature, and also well supplied with nutritious grass. The experience of Captain Gunnison was to the same effect. His twenty wagons, guided by Leroux, and without the benefit of pio- neers to remove obstructions, and making circuits to avoid impediments which a fatigue party should have removed, still made the distance be- tween the Del Norte and the Upper Colorado (300 miles) in 22 days, averaging nearly 15 miles to the day, (and government wagons at that, never known to be in a hurry,) being the usual rate of wagon travel on our country roads, the teams arriving at the Colorado fatter than they had left the Del Norte, and without other food than the grass on the way.; and this clears us of the Rocky Mountains, from which to the Little Salt Lake it is all an open, practicable way, not limited to a track, hut traversable on any line. Loaded wagons travel it in a state of nature. The valley of the Colorado is either level or rolling; the Wab- satch and Anterria ranges are perforated by incessant valleys, and from the Little Salt Lake to the Great Sierra Nevada, as explored by Fre- mont last winter, the way is nearly level — a succession of valleys between the mountains, perfectly adapted to artesian wells, and termi- nated by a superb pass debouching into the valley of San Joaquin. Fre- mont, referring to previous Indian information, says of it, — “When the point was reached, I found the Indian information fully verified : the mountain suddenly terminated, and broke down into lower grounds, barely above the level of the country, and making numerous openings into the vail ey of the San Joaquin. I entered into the first which offered, (taking no time to search, as we were entirely out of provisions, and living upon horses,) which led*us by an open and almost level hollow 13 miles long to an upland, not steep enough to be called a hill, over into the valley of a small affluent to Kern River, the hollow and the valley making together a way where a wagon would not find any obstruction for 40 miles.” The discovery of this pass was the “ crowning mercy” of this ad «n- turous winter expedition. It was the cherished desideratum of the cen- tral route. It fulfilled its last condition. It gives nearly a straight line from the Little Salt Lake to the Sierra Nevada, with a good pass into the valley of the San Joaquin. It cuts off the elbow which the old Los Angeles trail makes to the south-west. It avoids the desert on that route. It lexves far to the south those excitable fields of roving sands which infes* thr New San Diego route — sands which creep, like an 382 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OR array of pis-ants, under a gentle breeze, which bury the traveller who lies down to sleep on them when there is a little wind, unless he rises and shakes himself often during the night ; in which no number of horses can leave a track; in which the hillock of to-day is a hole in the ground to-morrow ; and which, in high winds, is a driving ^empest of silicious particles, very cutting to the eyes and skin, very suffocating to the throat, very dangerous to those who are not tall and swift, and from which man and beast fly for life ; and all which West Point science proposes to overcome by a profuse application*of federal dollars. All this is avoided by the short and straight route west from the Little Salt Lake discovered by Fremont in his winter expedition of 1853-’54. And this completes all that is necessary to be shown in favor of the smoothness of the way — its equality of surface throughout the whole line ; although it attains a great elevation, and lands you in California, in the rich and settled valley of San Joaquin, proximate to the southern end of the gold mines. Not a tunnel to be made, a mountain to be climbed, a hill to be crossed, a swamp to be seen, or desert or movable sand to be encountered, in the whole distance, and all this equality of surface barometrically determined by Fremont as well as visibly seen by his eye ; so that this line for a road, the longest and straightest in the world, is also over the smoothest and most equal surface. For, al- though a great elevation is attained, it is on a long line, and gradually and imperceptibly, the mere rise of an inclined plane. Rivers to be passed are obstructions to roads, to be overcome by large applications of skill and means ; and here again the central route is most favorable. The entire line is only crossed in its course by the streams in the valley of the Upper Colorado, and those of inconsiderable width, with solid banks, and stone for bridges. On this side of the Rocky Mountains the course of the rivers is parallel to that of the road; the Kanzas, the Arkansas, and the Huerfano being all in its line. Beyond the valley of the Colorado, no river at all, only small streams. Mr. McClanahan, and others whose statements have been given, have attested the supreme excellence of the route for the road from Missouri as far as the San Luis valley, and that upon experiment with wagons, carriages, flocks, and herds. It only remains to produce the same kind of testimony in behalf of the remaining part of the way, from that valley to California; and that testimony is at hand. Mr. R. S. Wootten, of New Mexico, a large dealer in stock to California, and who drove 8000 sheep there in the summer of 1853, thus writes in a letter which he gave responsibly to the public : — “ During the last year I have taken a drove of sheep from this place (Taos) to Cali- fornia over tile route that Colonel Fremont intended to have gone in the winter of 1848-49, at the time of his disaster. I made the trip through to California in 90 days, arriving there with my sheep in good order, having passed through some of the finest country I ever saw, and had good camps, and plenty of wood, water, and grass every night during the whole trip. There is now being commenced a settlement on the Arkansas Itiver, at the mouth of the Hueriano, at which emigrants can procure such necessaries as they may be in want of, and also at the Mormon settlements at Little Salt Lake. There is also a good ferry at the mouth of the Huerfano, and ferries will also be established during the coming summer on Grand River and Green River, (Up- per Colorado.) There is also another great advantage that this route has over a more northern one, as emigrants may leave Missouri as late as the 1st of August, and there is no danger of being stopped by snow. After reaching the great Spanish trail in the valley of Green River, (Upper Colorado,) from thence to California there is never any snow, and the months of October and November are more pleasant to travel, and better 5or stock, than the summer months.” THE GREAT WEST. 883 This is the testimony of experience, of actual experiment, in all the country of the mountains ; in all the region from the Rocky Mountains out, supposed by some to be so sterile, so rugged, so savage, so imprac- ticable ; proved to be so fine that sheep find camps when they please, and they only make ten miles a day, and fatten upon their travel. And the settlers already commenced settlements all along, and proceeding rapidly. What was one man at the mouth of the Huerfano in 1853, was forty in the spring of 1854, all raising crops. Other settlements skirt the road, as that of 200 families in the valley of San Luis, and the pueblos San Carlos, Cuerno Verde, and others above Bent’s Fort on the extreme Upper Arkansas. This finishes the testimony which time permits to be now produced in favor of the excellence of the country ; in fact, its surpassing beauty and great superiority. It is as full and complete as the law of evidence re- quires any testimony in such a case to be. Still there may be persons to impugn it, and to cry down the country. That is an old business, as old as Moses and the twelve messengers which he sent from the wilder- ness of Paran to spy out the promised land, and ten of which made an “ evil report ” of the country, and stirred up the mutiny against Moses which continued forty days, and for the punishment of which the rebel- lious children were detained forty years in the wilderness. This is what happened to the promised land, and it is not to be expected that the dis- tant and unknown countries of the Great West are to fare better. They also must expect to be evilly reported upon ; but truth is powerful and must prevail, even where two stand against ten, as in the question be- tween the messengers of Moses, and still more in the case of multitudes against units, as will be the way in the case of evil reports of this far distant West ; especially as the country \yill stand to vindicate itself and the truth. That is the last and greatest witness, the country itself — work of God — standing where he placed it, exhibiting itself as it is, and ready to cover with shame the faint-hearted wanderers who, to get an excuse to return to the flesh-pots of Egypt, are forever discovering a “ lion in the path.” I deem myself justified to develop, with some more detail, but one of the road advantages possessed by this route — an advantage often men- tioned, but not sufficiently enforced. It is that of coal, so valuable under every aspect, and so indispensable to railroads when in prairies. It ex- ists in superfluous abundance all along this line. Commencing in those coal fields in the west of Missouri which geologists compute to be of 20,000 square miles’ extent, it is found all along the Kanzas River, on the Upper Kanzas, in the Rocky Mountains, in the valley of the Upper Colorado, at the western base of the Wahsatch and Anterria ranges, thus known at present from its own exhibition of itself, cropping out from the bluffs of rivers and the banks of ravines. How much remains to be discovered when so much shows itself spontaneously 1 Really, it seems like “ carrying coals to Newcastle,” to tell of coal on this route. The proposed central route is intended to be a straight line, turned aside by no obstacle, and seduced from its course by no lateral interest. But it will be a road for the accommodation of the whole broad expanse of the country, from the Mississippi to the Pacific Ocean. Branches striking out like ribs from the spine, would reach every settlement — • Northern Missouri and Iowa from a point on the Upper Kanzas, New 384 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OR Mexico from a point on the Upper Arkansas, the Great Salt Lake from a point on the upper valley of the Colorado, and thence on'to the mouth of the Columbia, and Los Angeles and Southern California from a point on the Little Salt Lake and Santa Clara settlements. All these places would be conveniently reached by branch roads, while the great trunk would follow its direct course — best for itself and for them — from Mis- souri to California, debouching at each end into the midst of business populations, and connecting with steamboat navigation and all the state improvements. And its settlement would be magic. The line once in- dicated, and the enterprising emigrants of our America would flock upon it as pigeons to their roosts, tear open the bosom of the virgin soil, and spring into existence the long line of farms and houses, of towns and villages, of orchards, fields, and gardens, of churches and school- houses, of noisy shops, clattering mills, and thundering forges, and all that civilization affords to enliven the wild domain from the Mississippi to the Pacific ; to give protection and employment to the road, and to balance the populous communities in the eastern half of the Union by equal populations on its western half. In this description of the country I have relied chiefly on Fremont, whose exploration, directed by no authority, connected with no company, swayed by no interest, wholly guided by himself, and solely directed to the public good, would be entitled to credit upon his own report, unsup- ported by subsidiary evidence; but he has not left the credit of his re- port to his word alone. He has done besides what no other explorei had done ; he has made the country report itself. Besides determining elevations barometrically, and fixing positions astronomically, and meas- uring objects with a practised eye ; besides all that, he has applied the daguerreotype art to the face of the wild domain, and made it speak for itself. Three hundred of these views illustrate the path of his explora- tion, and compel every object to stand forth and show itself as it is, or was — mountain, gap, plain, rock, forest, grass, snow, (where there is any,) and naked ground where there is not; all exhibit themselves as they are ; for Daguerre has no power to conceal what is visible, or to ex- hibit what is unseen. If the “ wart” is there, he needs no admonition to show it, and could not suppress it. He uses no pencil to substitute fiction for fact, or fancy for memory. He is a machine that works to a pattern, and that pattern the object before him ; and in this way has Fre- mont reproduced the country from the Mississippi to the Pacific, and made it become the reflex of its own features, and the exhibiter of its own face, present and viewable to every beholder ; and that nothing may be wanting to complete the information on a subject of such magnitude, he has now gone back to give the finishing look at the tvest end of the line, which 30,000 miles of wilderness explorations in the last twelve years (all at his own solicitation, and the last half at his own cost) authorize him to believe is the true and good route for the road which is to unite the Atlan- tic and the Pacific, and to give a new channel to the commerce of Asia. All the other requisites for the construction and maintenance of a road, and to give it employment when done, have been shown in the view of the country — wood, water’, stone, coal, iron ; rich soil to build up set- tlements and cities, to give local business and travel all along its course, as well as at the great terminating points, and to protect it without govern- ment troops. Add to this, picturesque scenery and an entire region of THE GREAT WEST. 385 unsurpassed salubrity. This quality of the route, salubrity, requires a special notice. Fremont says of it, “ It is a healthy route. No diseases of any kind upon it, and the valetudinarian might travel it in his own vehicle, or on horse, or even on foot, for the mere recovery of spirits and restora- tion of health.” This is what Fremont says, and he ought to know traversing the region as he has done for twelve years, and never having a physician with him, nor losing a man by sickness. And all his moun- tain comrades, sojourners, of 20, 30, 40 years in this wild domain, report the same thing. Salubrity, then, is one of the eminent recommendatory qualities of the central route. The whole route for the road between the States of Missouri and California is good ; not only good, but su- premely excellent ; and it is helped out at each end by water lines of transportation, now actually existing, and by railways, projected or in progress. At the Missouri end there is a railway in construction to the line of the state, and steamboat navigation to the mouth of the Kanzas, and up that river some hundred miles ; at the California end there is the like navigation up the Bay of San Francisco and the San Joaquin River, and a railway projected. And thus this central route would be helped out at once by some 300 miles at each end, connecting it with the great business populations of California and Missouri, at which latter point it would be in central communication with the great business population of the Union. People now travel it and praise it ; buffaloes travel it, and repeat their travel, which is their praise. The federal government only seems to eschew it, and lean to outside routes — one by Canada, which the Cana- dian provincial parliament appears to be now adopting for its own ; and one through old Mexico, which Santa Anna might adopt, if he had any commerce ; and upon neither of which is seen a buffalo track, or a vol- untary white man’s track going to California, where no white man goes to get to California, except under the orders and at the expense of gov- ernment, and where no buffalo could be made to go, even by the power of the government. That sensible old animal would die before he would be made such a fool of as to be conducted to the Sacramento, or San Joaquin, or San Francisco, via the hyperborean region of Upper Cana- da and New Caledonia, or via the burning deserts of Sonora and Chi- huahua. The central route is the free choice of men and buffaloes, and is good for all sorts of roads, and in all seasons. Its straightness of course will enable the car to more than double its speed, and consequent- ly earn its money in half the time. The smoothness of its course is but little interrupted by its ascents or descents ; for they are gradual, and distributed over long distances ; and the. whole country between the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada, 'is at the general level of 5000 feet, the greatest descent being from the Sierra Nevada to the level of the sea : and that may distribute itself for the road over some hundred miles. And now I hold it to be in order of human events, in the regular pro- gression of human affairs, that the road will be built, and that soon ; not by public, but private means, by a company of solid men, asking nothing of Congress but the right of way through the public lands, and fair pay for good service in carrying mails, troops, government officials, and munitions of war. Such an enterprise is worthy of enlightened capitalists, who know how to combine private advantage with public good, and who feel a laudable desire to connect thehyiames with a mon- 386 THE GARDEN OP THE WORLD, OR u mental enterprise more useful than the pursuits of political ambition, more glorious than the conquest of nations, more durable than the pyra- mids, and which, being finished, is to change the face of the commercial world, and all to the advantage of our America. The road will be made, and soon, and by individual enterprise. Tho age is progressive and utilitarian. It abounds with talent seeking em- ployment, and with capital seeking investment. The temptation is irre- sistible. To reach the golden California, to put the populations of the Atlantic, the Pacific, and the Mississippi Valley into direct communica- tion, to connect Europe and Asia through our America, and to own a road of our own to the East Indies ; such is the grandeur of the enter- prise, and the time has arrived to begin it. The country is open to settlement, and inviting it, and receiving it. The world is in motion, following the track of the sun to its dip in the western ocean. West- ward the torrents of emigration direct their course, and soon the country between Missouri and California is to show the most rapid expansion of the human race that the ages of man have ever beheld. It will all be settled up, and that with magical rapidity; settlements will promote the road, the road will aggrandize the settlements. Soon it will be a line of towns, cities, villages, and farms. And rich will be the man that may own some quarter section on its track, or some squares in the cities which are to grow upon it. But the road beyond the Mississippi is only the half of the whole ; the other half is on this side, and either in progress or completed. Behold your own extended iron ways, departing from this city to go west towards the lakes and the great rivers, to join the great western trunk, now almost finished through Cincinnati, Vincennes, St. Louis, there to find the Pacific road in progress to the western limit of Missouri. Behold the lateral roads from Pennsylvania, New England, New York, all point- ing to the west, and converging to the same central track. And behold the diagonal central road of Virginia, to traverse the state from its south-east to its north-west corner, already finished beyond the Blue Ridge, and its advanced pioneers descending the Alleghany Mountain, to arrive at the mouth of Big Sandy, in the very latitude of St. Louis, San Erancisco, and Baltimore, and there to join the same great central western trunk. And the Blue Ridge road of South Carolina, bound upon the same destination, and the roads of Georgia pointing and advancing to the north-west. What is the destiny of all these Atlantic roads, thus pointing to the west, and converging upon the central track, the whole course of which lies through the centre of our Union, and through the centre of its population, wealth, and power, and one end of which points to Canton and Jeddo, the other to London and Paris — what will those lateral roads become, in addition to their original destination ? They will become parts of a system, bringing our Atlantic cities nearer to the Pacific coast than they were to the Blue Ridge and the Ohio in the time of canals and turnpikes. And what then 1 The great idea of Colum- bus will be realized, though in a different and a more beneficent form. Eastern Asia is reached by going west, and by a road of which we hold the key ; and the channel of Asiatic commerce, which has been shifting its bed from the time of Solomon, and raising up cities and kingdoms wherever it went, (to perish when it left them,) changing its channel for the last time, to become fixed upon its shortest, safest, best, and THE GREAT WEST. 387 quickest route, through, the heart of our America, and to revive along its course the Tyres, and Sidons; the Balbees, Palmyras, and Alexandras, once the seat of commerce and empire, and the ruins of which still at- test their former magnificence, and excite the wonder of the Oriental traveller. This great central trunk road from Baltimore to the mouth of the Kanzas, along the parallel of 39°, is already almost finished, and for all the purposes of its continuation from Missouri to California, may be assumed to be now finished ; for it will be completely so before any part of the other is ready to join it. It is now complete to the Ohio River, complete to Cincinnati, complete through the State of Ohio ; complete half way ‘through Indiana, and. the other half in progress ; complete half way through Illinois, and the other half in progress ; complete (near- ly) one third of the way through Missouri, and all the rest under con- tract, and under the daily energies of two thousand laborers, led by a most energetic contractor. We may assume, then, the great western trunk road to be finished from Atlantic tide water to the western limit of Missouri; that is to say, half way to the Pacific, and to the com- mencement of that vast inclined prairie plain which spreads from the Missouri frontier more than half the distance of the remaining half, and which is nearly prepared by the hand of Nature for the immediate recep- tion of the iron rails and their solid foundations. What a temptation for a company to begin the great work when so much is done to their hand, and so much of the remainder is so easy to be done ! and then, how advanced all the Atlantic and Mississippi Valley connections with this great western trunk ! . On the Atlantic side, from Maine te Georgia, from Bangor, on the Penobscot, in the State of Maine, to the State of Georgia, a man may now go by car to that central trunk in Ohio and Indiana; from the southern shores of the northern lakes he can do the same ; from the borders of the southern gulf he can partly do it. Soon all will be complete, and every part of the Atlantic States and of the Mis- sissippi Valley be ready to go into communication with the Pacific Ocean as soon as the trunk is completed from Missouri to California. Telegraphic lines are ready at both ends. In California they extend over the state, into the valleys of San Joaquin and Sacramento, and would be ready to meet the road at the state line. On this end, the wires now extend to the western limit of Missouri — to the mouth of Kanzas •—from which point intelligence can now be flashed to every part of the Union; so that, on this central route, there is only a gap to be filled. up to complete these magic communications between the shores of the two great oceans. This is the object ! that road, compared to which, those “ Appian and Plaminian Ways,” which have given immortality to their authors, are hut as dots to lengthened lines — as sands to mountains — as grains of mustard to the full grown tree. Besides the advantages to our Union in opening direct communication with that golden California, which com- pletes our extended dominion towards the setting sun, and a road to which would be the realization of the Roman idea of annexation, that no conquest was annexed until reached and pervaded by a road ; besides the ob- vious advantages, social, political, commercial, of this communication, another transcendental object presents itself ! That Oriental commerce which nations have sought for, and fought for, from the time of the Phe- THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OB nicians to the discovery of the Cape of Good Hope — which was carried on over lines so extended — by conveyances so slow and limited — amidst populations so various and barbarous, and which considered the merchant their lawful prey — and up and down rapid rivers, and across strange seas, and through wide and frightful deserts ; — and which, under all these perils, burdens, discouragements, converted Asiatic and African cities into seats of wealth and empire — centres of the arts and sciences — while Western Europe was yet barbarian ; and some branches of which afterwards lit up Venice, and Genoa, and Elorence, and made commer- cial cities the match for empires, and the wives and daughters of their citizens (in their luxurious, Oriental attire) the admiration and the envy of queens and princesses. All this commerce, and in a deeper and broader stream than the “ merchant princes ” ever saw, is now within our reach ! attainable by a road all the way on our own soil, and under our own laws ; to be flown over by a vehicle as much superior in speed and capacity to the steamboat as the boat is to the ship, and the ship to the camel. Thanks to the progress of the mechanic arts ! which are going on continually, converting into facilities what stood as obstacles in the way of national communications. To the savage, the sea was an obsta- cle : mechanical genius, in the invention of the ship, made it a facility. The firm land was what the barbarian wanted : the land became an ob- stacle to the civilized man, and remained so until the steam car was in- vented. Now the land becomes the facility again — the preferred element of passage — and admitting a velocity in its steam car which rivals the flight of the carrier pigeon, and a punctuality of arrival which may serve for the adjustment of clocks and watches. To say nothing of its accompaniment — the magnetic telegraph, which flashes intelligence across a continent, and exchanges messages between kingdoms in the twinkling of an eye ; and compared to which the flying car degener- ates into a lazy, lagging, creeping John Trot of a traveller, arriving with his news after it had become stale with age. All this commerce, in a stream so much larger, with a domestic road for its track, your own laws to protect it, with conveyances so rapid, and security so complete, lies at your acceptance. That which Jew and Gen- tile fought for before the age of Christianity, and for which Christians have fought both Jew and Gentile, and fought each other, and with the Saracen for an ally; all this is now at your acceptance, and by the be- neficent process of making a road, which, when made, will be a private fortune, as well as a public benefaction — a facility for individuals as well as for the government. Any other nation, upon half a pretext, would go to war for such a road, and tax unborn generations for its completion. We may have it without war, without tax, without treaty with any nation; and when we make it, all nations must travel it, with our permission, and behave well to receive permission, or fall behind and lose the trade by following the old track ; giving us a bond in the use of our road for their peaceable behavior. Twenty-five centuries have fought for the commercial road to India; we have it as a peaceable possession. Shall we use it 1 or wear out our lives in strife and bitterness, wrangling over a miserable topic of domestic contention, while a glorious prize lies neglected before us? Vasco de Gama — in the discovery of the Cape of Good Hope, and the opening of a new route to India, independent of Mussulman power — eclipsed, in his day, the glory of Columbus, balked THE GREAT WEST. 389 in the liscoverj' of his well-divined route by the intervention of a new world- Let us vindicate the glory of Columbus by realizing his divine idea ot arriving in the east by going to the west. The enterprise would be a trifle to the wealth and resources of our businew population — only some 1300 miles of road over ground the most favorable, and under skies the most auspicious, and with material the most abundant and convenient ; and the prices of labor and of iron returning to reasonable rates. More than half the distance is smooth prairie, to cost no more than railways in the prairies of Illinois : the remainder is nearly level — only slight undulations — with an almost total exemption from the high cuttings, deep fillings up, long bridgings and tunnelings, which constitute the gravity of the expense of railroad making. Say a fourth more than the cost of Illinois prairie road, (the wide gauge being understood,) and you have but $20,000 to the mile — $26,000,00 ) for the whole. What is that to the resources of our busi- ness populations 1 There are many 26 men in our extended Union who could luild the road themselves, and own it, as their private and princely estate, themselves and their posterity after them. Safety as well as profit, security as well as policy, protection against calamity as well as prospective good, require the construction of this road. What sustains and stimulates the national industry at this time I California gold ! that gold, the weekly arrival of which is the life’s blood of our daily industry ! and one month’s default of which would be the paralysis of our financial, commercial, and industrial world. And how do we receive that gold now ? Over foreign seas, and across foreign territory, end after a circuit of 6000 miles — liable to be cut off at any moment by the cruisers and privateers (to say nothing of fleets) of any power with which we might be at war ; and several specks of that porten- tous cloud now appear above the line of our political horizon. And this is the place for these political considerations. Such considerations ad- dress themselves to the political power ; and that political power is here Congress is charged with the protection of the national interests, and ships, and troops, and missions are put in requisition for that purpose. A readier, a cheaper, a more effectual mode of protection to that com- merce which belongs to the Pacific — which comes from California — would be to make this road through our own territory — placing it be- yond the reach of foreign depredation, and, at the same time, making it a means of keeping the Indians themselves in order. Pliny the elder, accounting for the commercial prosperity of some an- cient cities, attributed it to their form of government, (republican,) and because that form admitted the greatest freedom of enterprise. The moderns have seen the truth of this profound remark in later times — have seen it in Italy, in Holland, and in various parts of our America. We are a republic, and a great one ; and our fathers have given proof of the truth of Pliny’s axiom in the success and extent of their commercial undertakings. Their sons have not degenerated. The maxim of Pliny is not disparaged. The numerous Mercantile Library Associations which cover our country — their ample list of members and well-filled libraries, and laudable spirit of improvement — give earnest of future eminence, and of useful and honorable careers, rivalling their fathers, and justify- ing the axiom of Pliny. They will not let the road flag ; they will not lose the East India trade. All they want is information about the road. 390 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OR and I have endeavored to give it. I have brought the facts, carefully as- sured, to show that there is a good way for a good road, and a good country to sustain people to protect and support it — and law and gov- ernment to guard it — and settlements nearly all the way already begun, and to multiply with magic rapidity. Then let us begin — take the first step, which is always the most difficult. My plan is, to get this substi- tute bill passed, which Congress may pass without constitutional scruple, confined as it is to territorial domain, giving to the citizens whose names it contains, their successors, associates, and assigns, a right of way in one mile wide through the public lands in Kanzas and Utah, on each side of the road, and a year’s delay to obtain that practical information which business men must always have before they undertake any great enter- prise — building the road at their own expense, and without other aid from the federal government than that of its custom, paying for its ac- commodation by an arrangement not yet matured. I repeat, I am will- ing to vote the same privilege to any other company, but have no idea of squandering the public lands upon speculators, either to make a bub- ble stock upon the exchange of New York and London, or to build a private road for themselves at the national expense, and then tax the nation for travelling upon it. I do not expatiate upon the home advantages of a railway to the Pa- cific ; it has become a necessity, the urgency of which is universally admitted. I enforce another advantage, not so immediate, but obvious to the thinking mind, and important to America, Europe, and Asia; and which, in changing a channel of rich commerce, may have its effect upon the wealth and power of nations, and operate a change in the maritime branch of national wars : I allude to the East India trade, (already inci- dentally touched upon,) and the change of its channel from the water to the land ; and the effest of that change in-nullifying the maritime suprem- acy of naval powers by making continents, instead of oceans, the great theatres of international commerce. No events in the history of nations have had a greater effect on the relative wealth and power of nations, than the changes which have been going on for near 3000 years in the channels of Asiatic commerce. During that time nations have risen and fallen, as they possessed or lost that commerce. Events announce the forthcoming of a new change. The land becoming a facility and the ocean an obstacle to foreign trade, must have an effect upon Europe con- terminous upon Asia, and upon America separated from it by a western sea over which no European power can dominate. I confine myself to the American branch of the question, and glance at the past to get an insight into the future. I look to former channels of this Asiatic com- merce — their changes — the effects of the changes — and infer from what has been, what may be — from what is, to what will be. I. The Phoenician Route. — Tyre, queen of cities, was its first empori- um. The commerce of the East centred there before the captivity of the Jews in Babylon, upwards of 600 years before the coming of Christ. Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, conquered Tyre and razed it to its foundations : but he was no statesman — merely a destroyer — and did not found a rival city ; and the continuance of the India trade quickly restored the queen of cities to all her former degrees of preeminence and power. Alexander the Great conquered her again. He was a statesman, and knew how to build up, as well as how to pull down, and looked to THE GREAT WEST. 391 commerce for exalting and enriching that magnificent empire which his war genius was conquering. He founded a rival city on the coast of Egypt, better adapted to the trade ; and the prophecy of Ezekiel became fulfilled on Tyre ! She became a place for fishermen to dry their nets. II. The Jewish Route. — In the time of Solomon and David, the Jews succeeded to the East India trade, made it a leading subject of their pol- icy, and became rich and powerful upon it. Jerusalem rivalled Nineveh and Babylon ; and Palmyra, a mere thoroughfare in their trade, in the midst of a desert, became the seat of power and opulence, of Oriental magnificence, and the centre of the arts and sciences. The Jews lost that trade, and Jerusalem became as a widow in the wilderness, and Palmyra a den for foxes and Arabs. III. The Alexandrian Route. — This was opened by Alexander the Great — its course along the canal of Alexandria to the Nile — up that river to Coptus — thence across the desert with camels to the Bed Sea — and down that sea to the neighboring coasts of Asia and Africa — a route chosen with so much judgment that it made Alexandria and Egypt the seats of wealth, power, learning, the arts and sciences ; and continued to be the channel of trade for a period of 1800 years — from 300 years before Christ to the close of the fifteenth century — when the Portuguese discovery of the passage by the Cape of Good Hope annihilated . the Egyptian route, and transferred to Lisbon the glories of Alexandria. But not without a great contest. Solyman the Magnificent, then Sultan of the Turkish empire, fought the Portuguese for the dominion of routes — carried on long and bloody wars to break up the Cape of Good Hope route, assisted by the Venetians, because of their interest in the Egyptian route, and menacing Christendom (this alliance of Christian and Sara- cen against Christians, according to the Abbe Raynal, indorsed by the philosophic historian Robertson) with the “most illiberal and humiliat- ing servitude that ever oppressed polished nations.” Erom this calamity Christendom was saved by the valor of the Portuguese, and the talents of their renowned commander, Albuquerque ; but the contest shows the value which all nations placed on the possession of this trade ; and the reversed conditions of Alexandria and Lisbon — of Egypt and Portugal — upon the defeat of the Turks and Venetians, shows that that value was not over-estimated. IV. The C'onstantinopolitan Route. — This became fully established in the time of the Greek empire, and during the 200 years of the Crusade irruptions ; and to which the enlightened part of the Crusaders greatly contributed. Eor, while a religious frenzy operated upon the masses, the extension of their trade with India was the systematic, persevering, and successful policy of all liberal and enlightened minds, availing themselves of that frenzy to promote and establish the commerce upon the posses- sion of which the supremacy of nations depended. It was fully estab- lished ; and the long and tedious transit across the Black Sea to the mouth of the Phases, up that river to a portage of five days to the Cyrus, down that river to the Caspian Sea, across it to the mouth of the Oxus, up it 900 miles to Samarcand, (once Alexandria,) the limit of Alexander’s march to the north-east ; and after this long travel, an overland journey of 90 days on the Bactrian camel, to the confines of China, commenced Such was this extended route. Yet it was upon this route, so extended and perilous, that Europe was supplied with East India goods for several 892 THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD, OR centuries — the profits of the trade being so great that after its arrival at Constantinople, it could still come on to Italy, and even round to Bruges (Brussels) and to Antwerp. It was upon this route that the Genoese established their great commerce, gaining permanent establishments, with great privileges, at Constantinople, (its suburb Pera,) and in that Crimea, then resplendent with wealth, since impoverished, now the scene of bloody strife ; and of which the issue would be fortunate, if it restored the Crimea to what it was when Caffa was as celebrated as Sebastopol is now, and celebrated for streams of commerce instead of streams of blood. But to this route of Constantinople the Cape of Good Hope passage be- came as fatal as it was to that of Alexandria. Y. The Ocean Route. — It has been the line of the East India trade since the close of the fifteenth century, and must have continued to be so forever, if a marvel had not been wrought, and the land become the facil- ity — the ocean the obstacle — to commerce. All the powers that have land for distant communications must now betake themselves to the steam car. Why contend with ships for the dominion of the sea, when both the ships and the sea are to be superseded ? Take the case of Rus- sia. She has been 1 50 years building up a navy — to become useless the first day it was wanted. Not only useless, but an encumbrance and a burden — requiring impregnable forts, and vast armies, and murderous battles to protect and to save it — save it from going to swell the enemy’s fleet, and be turned against its builders. Why build any more ships when there is the land to carry commerce, without protection, to every part of Europe, and to Asia, and to America, (by Behring’s Straits,) ren- dering fleets inoperative and harmless 1 But I confine myself to our own commerce and our own land. There is the road to India, (pointing west,) half the way upon our own land, and the rest on a peaceable sea, washing our shores, but separated from Europe by the whole diameter of the earth. Can we not cease wrangling over an odious subject of domestic contention, and go to work upon the road which is to exalt us to the highest rank among nations, and make us mistress of the richest gem in the diadem of commerce ? Can we not cease contention, and seize the supreme prize which lies glittering before us 1 Make the road ! and in its making, make our America the thoroughfare of Oriental com- merce — throw back the Cape and the Horn routes to what Tyre became when Alexandria was founded, and what Alexandria became when the Cape of Good Hope was doubled — making Europe submissive and tributary to us for a transit upon our route, and dispensing us from the maintenance of the fleets which the ocean commerce demands for its protection 'i Pass the substitute which I propose, and you have the opinion of men whose names are in it, and whose opinions are worth attention, that these great and glorious consequences will ensue. IHE GREAT WEST. 393 ROUTES TO THE WEST FOR THE EMIGRANT AND THE TOURIST. GREAT WESTERN RAILROAD ROUTE. Among the different routes from Boston to the Western States, the shortest, most direct, and popular railroad route is via Worcester, Spring- field, Albany, and Rochester. At Rochester is a diverging point, one going via Buffalo and along the southern shore of La^re Erie to Cleveland, where there are numerous railroads running into the interior of the States of Ohio and Indiana. Also, a route extending on from Cleveland to Toledo, and thence over the Michigan, Southern, and Northern Indiana Railroads to Chicago, where it connects with the different railroads run- ning into Illinois and Iowa. The other route goes from Rochester to Suspension Bridge, and thence by the Great Western Railway to Detroit, thence via the Michigan Central Railroad to Chicago, where it connects with railroads running to Galena, Dubuque, Rock Island, Burlington, Peoria, Springfield, and St. Louis. There is but little difference in these two routes in point of time, although the one via Suspension Bridge and Detroit is a few miles the shortest. The price of tickets to Chicago, and points west of Chicago, are the same by either route. Table of Distances from Boston to the various Points in the Great West, via Worcester, and Western, and New York Central Railroads. MILES. MILES. Distance from Boston to Albany, 200 Albany to Buffalo, 300 500 Buffalo to Cleveland 180 680 Cleveland to Toledo, 112 792 Toledo to Chicago, 243 1035 Via Worcester, and Western, and New York Central Railroad. Distance from Boston to Albany, 200 Albany to Niagara Falls 300 500 Niagara Falls to Detroit, 229 729 Detroit to Chicago, 282 101 1 Chicago to St. Louis, 260 “ Burlington 210 “ Rock Island 182 “ Fulton City, 136 “ Galena 171 “ Milwaukie, 85 Distance from Boston to Cleveland, 680 Cleveland to Cincinnati via Columbus, .... 255 935 “ “ via Dayton, 273 953 “ Indianapolis, 280 960 “ TerreTIaute, 353 1033 “ St. Louis via Indianapolis, ... . 558 1238 394 THE GARDEN OP THE WORLD, OR Table showing the comparative Distance from Boston to Buffalo be- tween the different Routes. From Boston to Buffalo via Wor., and Western, andN. Y. C. RR. 500 “ “ “ Fitchburg and Rutland, 568 “ “ “ New York and N. Y. & Erie RR. . . . 654 Thus it will be seen that the route via Worcester, and Western, and New York Central Railroads is sixty-eight miles shorter than that via Fitchburg and Rutland, and one hundred and fifty-four miles shorter than via New York City. By the Worcester and Western route, baggage is checked through from Boston to Buffalo or Suspension Bridge, thus saving the passenger trouble and expense, and is not checked through to those points by any other route. The running time is so arranged as to form a continuous line, and the usual time from Boston to Chicago is forty-eight hours ; from Boston to Cincinnati thirty-six hours. This is the only line in Boston via Worcester and Western Railroad where passengers can have their choice of all the lines west of Albany and Buffalo. Through tickets for sale at 19 State Street, or Ticket Office Boston and Worcester Railroad, Albany Street. FARES. 1ST CLASS. EMIGRANT. To St. Louis, Mo $29.50 $13.00 To Milwaukie, Wis 26.40 13.77 To Chicago, 111 24.00 12.00 To Cincinnati, 0 20.50 11.00 These rates are subject to changes. We give them merely to present some idea of the expense. ROUTE TO THE WEST VIA FITCHBURG, CHESHIRE, RUT- LAND AND BURLINGTON RAILROADS. From Boston to Fitchburg via Fitchburg Railroad, from Fitchburg to Bellows Falls via Cheshire Railroad, from^Bellows Falls to Rutland via Rutland and Burlington Railroad, thence to connect with New York Central Railroad from Rutland to Schenectady via Saratoga, or to Troy, New York, via North Bennington, or to Albany via Eagle Bridge, and from Schenectady, Troy, or Albany, west, via New York Central Rail- road, or from Bellows Falls to Burlington via Rutland and Burlington or Vermont Central Railroad, thence to Ogdensburg and west. The prices of tickets west, as well as freight, are as low as by any other route. The present prices to Albany are, for freight, 1st class 35c., 2d class 30c., and 3d class 25c. per 100 pounds ; and for tickets, 1st class $5.00, emigrant $3.00. The prices west are subject to changes by various routes, classes, &c., and cannot be given for any definite period. The price of tickets from Albany to Suspension Bridge or Buffalo is, 1st class $6.00, emigrant $3.00. ROUTE FROM NEW YORK TO ST. LOUIS. From New Ytrk via the Hudson -River Railroad to Albany, Central THE GREAT WEST. 395 Southern Michigan, by steamboat, and Chicago and M ksis sippi Railroad. Fare to St. Louis, $26. Whole distance, 1693 miles. From New York via the Hudson River Railroad, Michigan Central Railroad, and steamboat, and Chicago and Mississippi Railroad. Fare to St. Louis, $26. Whole distance, 1760 miles. From New York via the Hudson River steamboats, New York Central Railroad, Great Western Railroad, Michigan Central Railroad, and Chi- cago and Mississippi Railroad. Fare to St. Louis, $28. Whole distance, 1736 miles. The several railroad lines from New England and New York pass chil- dren under five years of age free, and charge half price for those from five to twelve years old. On steamers, those under four years go free. Each grown person is allowed to carry baggage free not exceeding one hundred pounds. The novice who travels on western steamboats should know that it is the custom to include the right to boarding and state room in the charge for passage ; and from the time the name is registered and fare paid, though the boat should be detained at the levee several days, the passen- ger is entitled to meals and lodging. The frequency of bell-ringing, and uncertainty as to the hour of starting, render it judicious to live on board. The conveniences are as many, and table as good, as may be found in an ordinary hotel. ROUTES FROM THE PRINCIPAL PLACES IN NORTHERN NEW ENGLAND TO THE WEST. For the convenience of our friends in Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont, who are not conversant with their railroad facilities, we have carefully compiled the following tables, showing the different routes from the largest towns in their respective states. Persons residing in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut will readily perceive that we have already given all the necessary information, for those desiring to emigrate from their states, on the preceding pages. Portland , Me. — By railroad or boat to Boston, and thence by various routes, or by cars, to Montreal and Brockville, C. W., and thence by steamboats to Toronto or Lewiston. In the fall a line of railroad 'will be opened from Brockville to Toronto, forming a direct route from Portland to Chicago, &c. From Toronto via Collingwood by cars, and thence by steamer to all ports on Lake Michigan ; or by way of Detroit by railroad. Portsmouth, N. H. — By cars to Boston, or by railroad through Con- cord, N. H., to Ogdensburgh, N. Y., and thence by boats to Toronto or Lewiston, and thence by routes from Suspension Bridge C£ Buffalo. Nashua, N. H. — Via Worcester and Albany; via Groton Junction and Rutland to Albany ; or via Concord and Ogdensburgh. * Concord, N. H. — By cars to Ogdensburgh, N. Y., and thence by steamboat to Toronto or Lewiston ; via Nashua, and Worcester, and Al- bany ; or via Nashua, Groton Junction, and Rutland, and Schenectady ; or via Boston. St. Johnshury, Vt. — Via White River Junction and Ogdensburgh ; or via Belkrws Falls, and Rutland, and Albany; or via Springfield and Albany. Littleton, N. H. — Via Wells River, and same as St. Johnsbury. 396 THE GREAT WEST. Plymouth, N. H. — Yia Concord. (See Concord.) Burlington, Vt. — Yia Ogdensburgh or by steamboat to Whitehall, and thence by cars to Albany or Troy ; or by railroad to Rutland and Troy, or Albany. Northfield, Vt. — To Ogdensburgh, or via Burlington. Waterbary and Montpelier. — The same as Burlington. PASSENGER AND EXPRESS ROUTE FOR CALIFORNIA. There are, it is well known to the public, two passenger and express routes from the Atlantic States to California: one, the old established mail route via the Isthmus of Panama, called the “ United States and Pacific Mail Steamship Company,” the other the “Nicaragua Steamslnp and Accessory Transit Company,” via the Isthmus of Nicaragua. This last is somewhat the shortest route, but owing to the unsettled state of the country through which it passes in crossing from ocean to ocean, it cannot be depended upon as a safe or speedy means of transit at the present time. The route via Panama, oh the contrary, may be counted on with certainty as being always safe, speedy, and reliable ; and the pas- senger or family securing ticket by this hue can reckon the time within a few hours that will land him at his place of destination. No greater evidence of the reliability of this line need be adduced than the fact that the well-known express of Adams & Co., from the time of the gold discovery in California until their withdrawal from the California business, has always been transported by the United States and Pacific Mail Line via Panama route, and that their successors to the California Express, Messrs. Freeman &; Co., still continue to send the bulk of their express freight, gold dust, and valuable packages by that same route. The steamers of the United States Mail Steamship Company leave New York regularly on the 5th and 20th of every month (except when those dates fall on Sunday, when they leave the day following) for Aspia- wall, Navy Bay, direct, and perform the trip in about days, distance 2000 miles. As soon as the passengers, baggage, mails, and express matter can be landed, they are received by the new and comfortable cars of the Panama Railroad Company, and after a pleasant ride of 5 or 6 hours across the Isthmus, the old Spanish city of Panama is reached, and passengers, baggage, mails, express, Sec., are at once transferred to the new iron barges of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, and in a few minutes are safely embarked on board one of their splendid floating palaces lying always ready in the harbor, and are steaming away up the coast of the beautiful Pacific towards San Francisco, (a distance of some 4000 miles,) where they arrive in about 13 days, generally refreshed and improved by the voyage. She price of passage by this fine is as follows, viz. : — Deck State Room Berths, $300 Upper Saloon “ 275 Lower Saloon “ 225 Second Cabin “ 175 Upper Steerage “ 125 Low r er Steerage “ 100 Tickets for sale at 59 Broadway, New York, and 84 Washington Street, Boston.